Don’t be fooled: Know your rights when staging a protest

Since the Social Justice Coalition won a hard-fought court battle in November 2018 with a ruling that it was no longer a criminal offence to fail to notify authorities of a protest, there has not been enough clarity on what the correct and legal procedure is.

The ruling does not mean that protest organisers are exempt from notifying the authorities, only that failing to do so is no longer a criminal offence.

But some municipalities have continued to misapply the Regulation of Gatherings Act (RGA), interpreting the current state of play as they see fit, often placing insurmountable hurdles in the way of communities wishing to protest within the law…..more