“No-one can stop me if I’m with the community…this is the time that we live and die for our people."

These are the words of Operation Dudula front man Nhlanhla "Lux" Dlamini shortly after he was granted R1,500 bail in the Roodepoort magistrate's court.

Addressing large crowds outside the court, Dlamini vowed to continue with his activities.

Dlamini stands accused of leading the group to Soweto resident Victor Ramerafe's home in Dobsonville where they allegedly broke in as they accused him of selling drugs.

The group never found drugs and the raid has since been condemned by the EFF which helped its member open the case last week.

There was a heavy police presence in and around the barricaded court ahead of Dlamini's appearance as Operation Dudula and Patriotic Alliance supporters staged a picket outside the court in his support.

Inside the court, a visibly jubilant Dlamini emerged from the holding cells to the dock, and greeted his supporters who sat in the court gallery together with a large media contingent.

Magistrate Ruby Matthys said Dlamini would appear before the same court on May 27, pending further investigations, which included the securing of further witnesses.

Matthys instructed Dlamini not to make contact with Ramerafe, to surrender his passport to the police and report to the investigating officer should he intend to leave Gauteng.

Dlamini’s lawyer Dumisani Mabunda called for minimum restrictions on Dlamini as he said the state's case against him was weak.

Mabunda said the police had to be instructed to ensure that fingerprints at Ramerafe’s house were taken and processed as part of the investigation before the case resumed in May.

Matthys, however, rejected this and said the police had the sole prerogative in how the investigation would be approached.

“We will leave it up to them to decide how to do the investigation,” she said.

Dlamini took a swipe at the EFF as he accused it of having orchestrated his arrest.

He, however, condemned some of his supporters who carried a coffin bearing EFF leader Julius Malema’s face during the picket as he said the group must lead even its foes.

“We are not going to be carrying caskets and say Malema must die. We are better people than that. They were taking a platform, saying Nhlanhla Lux must die next time he enters people’s yards. I am not going to open a case. You don’t need to kill people when they are dying,” he said.

“Even the very people who got us to this point, I don’t want to call them by name because I see they are trending through and have no plan, but even then they must benefit from our leadership. Even those who hate and despise us must benefit from our leadership.”

While the group has been condemned by the government and various political parties as a vigilante group that was taking the law into its own hands by conducting raids, Dlamini said community members knew where drugs were being sold.

He also took a jab at the police who stood a stone's throw away from the crowd, accusing some of them of being hooked on drugs.

“As they are standing there, even though I am not being personal because I can’t see who is who, some of them are on drugs as we speak. Some of them are suffering from drugs. Next time think twice when they say arrest us because Lux is fighting for you and your children that are on drugs,” he said.