R2K Champions 2016: Alfred “General” Moyo

Moyo is a community organiser in Makause, an informal settlement near Germiston. He has become a leading figure in challenging the apartheid-era Intimidation Act, a law used to stifle freedom of expression.

As an organiser for the Makause Community Development Forum, in 2012 Moyo involved in planning a march against police brutality at Primrose Police Station. In the lead-up to the march, police clearly tried to stop it from going ahead – and in a meeting with authorities, Moyo criticised them loudly.

In a blatant attempt to silence him, the station commander simply charged him with “intimidation” under the apartheid-era Intimidation Act. This law makes it a crime to engage in any speech or conduct which another person finds intimidating – no matter whether this is reasonable or whether it was intentionally intimidating. This broad infringement of free speech allows police to charge any activist they like for engaging in speech or conduct which ‘intimidates’ them.

With lawyers from the Socio Economic Rights Institute (SERI), Moyo went to court to seek to have section 1(2) of the Intimidation Act declared unconstitutional and invalid – as a law which stifles freedom of expression. Read more here.

Moyo is featured in the 2016 Champions for the Right to Know Calendar.