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Bonginkosi Khanyile joins MK Party after PA expulsion
Khanyile has the right credentials to lead the youth, according to the MK Party.
Bonginkosi Khanyile. Photo: Gallo Images.
July unrest-accused Bonginkosi Khanyile has been appointed as a “volunteer-in-chief” and youth leader of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party after his expelled from the Patriotic Alliance (PA).
According to MK secretary Thanduxolo Dyodo, the decision was made after “a thorough assessment of issues facing the youth.”
“Bonginkosi Khanyile has the right credentials and consciousness to lead efforts to overcome the myriad of challenges facing the youth.
“His role will be to coordinate efforts and organise youth to rally behind the banner of the MK Party whilst mobilising and agitating them to wage popular struggles,” Dyodo said in a press release on Saturday.
Expulsion from PA
The PA expelled Khanyile last December after he attended an MK rally addressed by hero, former president Jacob Zuma.
The former #FeesMustFall activist was the PA’s premier KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) premier candidate and its youth wing leader.
Khanyile was a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and ANC before joining PA.
He was charged with inciting public violence and holding an illegal gathering following the destructive July 2021 riots
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This is after he appeared in videos initially encouraging people outside a Shoprite store to demand that Zuma be released from jail and then, during the unrest, telling people to continue rioting and looting until the ex-president was released.
The 8-to-19 July riots – which took place in KZN and parts of Gauteng – resulted in more than 330 people losing their lives, with the violence ostensibly being triggered by Zuma’s imprisonment.
He was granted R5,000 bail. His trial is set for June this year.
Run-is with the law
The July riots were not the first time Khanyile found himself on the wrong side of the law.
In 2018, Khanyile pleaded guilty to four charges related to the 2016 Fees Must Fall protests in KZN.
He was a leader in the EFF’s student command at that time.
His guilty plea was related to public violence, possession of a dangerous weapon and two counts of failure to comply with police orders.
The Durban Regional Court in 2019 handed him a three-year prison sentence suspended for five years for the charges.
He was also instructed to undergo a life skills program for public violence.
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