The Constitutional Court on Monday upheld an earlier high court judgment against the criminalisation of protests under the 1993 Regulation of Gatherings Act.
The country’s highest court earlier this year heard an application to confirm a ruling by the High Court in Cape Town, which declared part of the act unconstitutional and invalid.
The law dictates that it can be a criminal offence to convene a gathering of more than 15 people without giving the required prior notification to the responsible officer of a municipality.
The high court found this to be unconstitutional in that it limits the right to protest peacefully.
The Constitutional Court must always confirm such rulings by lower courts.
The state and the minister of police sought leave to appeal against the high court’s declaration.
The case came about in relation to members of the Social Justice Coalition who in September 2015 travelled as a group of 15 to demonstrate at the Cape Town Civic Centre against dangerous and inadequate sanitation facilities in Khayelitsha.
Despite their demonstration, which grew in number, being peaceful and unarmed‚ the police eventually arrested them because it supposedly became unlawful due to its size.
When the organisers were criminally charged and convicted, they appealed to the high court, which overturned their criminal convictions and declared the relevant section unconstitutional because it limited and criminalised peaceful protest.
