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South African DJ in court over spate of violence

A South African DJ appeared in court on Wednesday facing charges of incitement to commit public violence after the country saw its worst unrest since the end of apartheid.

The government has said it is clamping down on the suspected plotters of the violence.

Ngizwe Mchunu is one of six arrested so far among 12 suspects in what authorities described as a conspiracy to foment the violence.

Looting and burning of tens of thousands of businesses broke out shortly after the jailing on July 8 of former president Jacob Zuma for refusing to testify in a corruption probe.

Mchunu, a staunch Zuma supporter, turned himself in after police issued an arrest warrant following a viral video in which he called for Zuma’s release.

He appeared in the packed courtroom wearing a traditional Zulu headband, crafted out of a goat’s hide and a Covid-19 mask branded with the South African flag.

Mchunu, who left SABC’s Ukhozi FM radio more than four years ago and now practises as a traditional healer, was denied bail.

“It will not be in the interest of justice for me to entertain the question of bail today,” said magistrate Hleziphi Mkhasibe, ordering Mchunu back to court on July 28.

His lawyers argued he was not a flight risk, especially because he turned himself in voluntarily.

Advocate Stix Madladla said Mchunu “did not incite violence. It’s freedom of expression.”

His wife Nqobile Mthimkhulu sobbed as he was led to the court’s holding cells.

“This is not fair,” she said. “My husband is a cultural man, he is a good man.”

National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga told AFP that Mchunu was considered a flight risk, saying he had committed “a serious offence that has engulfed the country into chaos.”

A politician of the small opposition party Patriotic Alliance, Bruce Nimmerhoudt, has also appeared in court this week for allegedly inciting violence over WhatsApp.