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Cape Town - The sentencing of nine members of the Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement was postponed on Wednesday as the “poo protesters” were unable to cover the cost of their legal representation.
Andile Lili and eight others made a brief appearance in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court, where advocate Pearl Mathibela requested a postponement.
Ever defiant, Lili told supporters outside court, “If we are to be sentenced to life in prison, let it be. Our dignity will remain intact. We can’t sell our souls.”
Mathibela had earlier told the court she would in the meantime continue to represent the men pro bono as the issue “touches on human rights and goes to the heart of access to justice”.
The matter was postponed to August 18.
The men were found guilty of contravening the Civil Aviation Act in February after they dumped human faeces at the Cape Town International Airport two years ago.
This was in response to the communal toilets in areas such as Gugulethu and Khayelitsha not being emptied for three months, Lili said.
Lili told the crowd he was “disappointed and embarrassed” that they are unable to pay their legal representatives.
“But poor as we are, we can’t go and submit,” he insisted, saying Ses'khona represented the interests of the poor without any financial backing from sponsors or businesses.
