Top court reflects on the criminalisation of peaceful demonstrations in SA

Nine members of the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) who were arrested while demonstrating peacefully outside the Cape Town Civic Centre in 2013 have pinned their hopes on the Constitutional Court.

They want the country’s highest court to decriminalise the organising of peaceful demonstrations.

On Tuesday‚ they asked the Constitutional Court to confirm an order made by the High Court in Cape Town in January declaring part of the Regulation of Gatherings Act as unconstitutional.

The high court said the section was unconstitutional insofar as it made it a criminal offence to convene a gathering of more than 15 people without giving prior notification to a municipality.

The Constitutional Court reserved judgment after hearing the application on Tuesday.

The court also heard an appeal by the state and the ministry of police‚ who asked that the order made by the high court not be confirmed and that the activists’ convictions not be set aside.

Members of the SJC‚ a non-governmental organisation‚ were arrested in 2013 after chaining themselves together on the steps of the Cape Town Civic Centre‚ demanding to meet the mayor.

For years they had tried to engage with the city to address chronic sanitation problems in Khayelitsha‚ without success. For their demonstration‚ they had intended to remain within the law by having only 15 protesters‚ but the crowd had swelled at the steps of the civic centre. The 10 convenors of the gathering were charged with contravening the law.

The Bellville Magistrate’s Court found them guilty as charged. However‚ the magistrate cautioned and discharged them. They appealed against the convictions‚ which the high court set aside.

One of the 10 activists‚ Nolulama Jara‚ died in 2015 with a criminal record. But she remains on the activists’ appeal to the Constitutional Court.

Six of the activists made their way to the court on Tuesday to hear the application.