R2K Champions 2019: #SJC10
Won a major victory for the right to protest by challenging the criminalisation of peaceful protest without notice in the Constitutional Court. 
The SJC 10 are ten activists from the Social Justice Coalition who took a section of South Africa’s protest law, the Regulation of Gatherings Act, to the Constitutional Court in 2018.
Their case started after the ten were arrested and convicted in 2013 for an act of peaceful civil disobedience outside the offices of Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille. The activists chained themselves to the railings of the Civic Centre in protest of the local government’s failure to provide proper sanitation for Cape Town’s residents. They were charged and convicted under section 12(1)(a) of the Regulation of Gatherings Act, which made it a criminal offense to convene a protest of more than 15 people without giving notice to the authorities, even if it’s a peaceful protest. 21 SJC activists were originally arrested outside the Civic Centre. Only 10 were convicted.
The #SJC10 appealed these convictions at the Western Cape High Court in 2016. They argued that this section violates their right to freedom of assembly as guaranteed by the Constitution. The High Court agreed that Section 12(1)(a) of the RGA is unconstitutional. The Minister of Police appealed against the High Court judgment and the matter was heard in the Constitutional Court in August 2018. Judgment is expected before the end of 2018.
Read more here.
#SJC10 is featured on the 2019 Champions for the Right to Know Calendar.
