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Napoleon Webster Held Behind Bars for 200 Days

 

Napoleon, along with 12 others, is charged with the murder of an ANC councilor in early December 2016. All men deny involvement in the murder. Several witnesses have testified that Napoleon was in another part of Marikana when the crime took place.

 

This Sunday will mark 100 days since the arrest of Napoleon Webster. The bail hearing lasted an excruciating 88 days with approximately 20 court appearances with several postponements being made due to scheduling issues, failure of court equipment and lack of resources available for the smooth and speedy administration of justice at the court.

 

The Marikana Support Campaign has stated from the outset that the arrests are motivated by the protection of the mining companies and politicians associated with them. State resources are being used to intimidate and silence activists based in Marikana, especially Napoleon who has called for:

 

  1. Legal justice towards the victims of the 2012 Lonmin Marikana massacre;
  2. Lonmin to honor commitments regarding living conditions of mineworkers and the local community as set out in their Social Labour Plan;
  3. Cyril Ramaphosa to acknowledge he has blood on his hands in relation to the 2012 Lonmin massacre; and
  4. Tharisa mine to take responsibility for the displacement of a section of the Marikana community for them to conduct their mining operations.

 

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Napoleon Webster Statement on his One Hundredth Day of Politically Motivated Imprisonment.

 

Comrades, on this my hundredth day,  I would like to thank you all for all the support which you have given to me throughout the jail time. I say this with full acknowledgement that there are many people who are jailed for crimes they never committed in South Afrikan jails who do not have this kind of support. I have been especially touched by the constant support of ordinary people at all my court appearances. We must remember that  courageous leaders like Tatane and Mambush were from our own communities. I also received a lot of support from range of activists and in the end i will remember the silence of my friends more than the words of my enemies.
Comrades we all know that my jailing was politically motivated we do not doubt that however we remain resolute because we have been affirmed in our cause through their persecutions and prosecution! When we say these things comrades we do not mean to romanticize the jails but it is to affirm that, we the ordinary people are in jail everywhere in this maximum security prison called South Afrika.

 

  • Comrades our fight for the living wage is a just call!
  • Our fight for descent housing and living conditions is a just call!
  • Our fight for compensating the  victims of the Lonmin  massacre in Marikana and the prosecution of the perpetrators is a just call!
  • Our fight for free decolonized education is a just call!
  • Do we then stop because we are silenced and state resources are being used to persecute those of us who are the moral conscience of this country?
  • By no means we shall continue to fight until every cry of the poor becomes the moral compass of those in power!

 

Black Power. Black love!

Napoleon Webster
Khoisan VI

Ramochana prison
Rustenburg

“This case is a shocking example of what people can do with power. It is also meant to send a strong warning to land activists but it is too late to hold people back from centuries of dispossesion. Of course we are all worried about Webster and we still believe in his cause.”, said Masello Motana, one of the picket organizers.