{"id":241312,"date":"2022-10-27T19:18:15","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T17:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/we-want-the-communities-money-back-picketers-tell-suspended-sjc-activist-outside-court\/"},"modified":"2022-10-27T19:18:15","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T17:18:15","slug":"bring-back-the-money-picketers-shout-at-suspended-sjc-activist-outside-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/bring-back-the-money-picketers-shout-at-suspended-sjc-activist-outside-court\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBring back the money\u201d: picketers shout at suspended SJC activist outside court"},"content":{"rendered":"
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About 50 Social Justice Coalition members were outside the Khayelitsha Magistrate\u2019s Court on Thursday as suspended Social Justice Coalition general manager Xolani Klaas made his second appearance on charges of fraud. Photo: Mary-Anne Gontsana<\/p>\n

Members and supporters of the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) filled the public benches in court on Thursday for the trial of suspended general manager Xolani Klaas.<\/p>\n

Klaas, who stood in the dock briefly at the Khayelitsha Magistrates Court, faces charges related to fraud in excess of R730,000. This was his second court appearance.<\/p>\n

In June, a GroundUp investigation revealed<\/a> that Klaas appeared to be using SJC funds to pay for furniture and household appliances, luxury clothes, watches, groceries, and expensive technology, totalling hundreds of thousands of rands.<\/p>\n

Klaas was suspended and SJC staff laid criminal charges<\/a> against him at Lingelethu West Police Station at the end of June. In July, GroundUp reported that Klaas had returned some furniture<\/a> to the organisation\u2019s offices that was purchased using the SJC\u2019s funds.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, about 50 people picketed outside the courtroom while those who were able to get seats inside waited for Klaas to make an appearance. Only 30 people were allowed inside the small room. He made a brief appearance and the prosecutor asked that the matter be postponed to December to allow time to compile \u201coutstanding information\u201d and complete \u201can ongoing investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Outside, some SJC members stood on the steps of the court, holding placards which read: \u201cDown with Xolani Klaas\u201d, \u201cWe want the communities\u2019 money back\u201d and \u201cBring back the money Xolani\u201d.<\/p>\n

Klaas was seen leaving through the court\u2019s back exit. He quickly got into his car and drove off. Picketers pointed at him and shouted \u201cGive us the money!\u201d<\/p>\n

The SJC\u2019s political educator, Bonga Zamisa said, \u201cAlthough the process is taking longer than anticipated, the SJC is happy to see that the right steps have been taken to hold Xolani Klaas accountable for his actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SJC is also grateful that the community has remained united during these hard times, and have once again shown their support for the SJC\u2019s work today,\u201d said Zamisa.<\/p>\n

Klaas is due back in court on 1 December.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a9 2022 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About 50 Social Justice Coalition members were outside the Khayelitsha Magistrate\u2019s Court on Thursday as suspended Social Justice Coalition general manager Xolani Klaas made his second appearance on charges of fraud. Photo: Mary-Anne Gontsana Members and supporters of the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) filled the public benches in court on Thursday for the trial of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-241312","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"tag-groundup","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/bring-back-the-money-picketers-shout-at-suspended-sjc-activist-outside-court.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}