Makause - right to protest - alleged intimidation - Primrose police station - Germiston Magistrates Court
SERI represents three residents of the Makause informal settlement, located in Primrose, Ekurhuleni - including General Moyo of the Makause Community Development Forum (Macodefo) - who were unlawfully arrested in October 2012 in connection with a gathering to protest police brutality in Primrose. The three were held overnight at the station and eventually granted bail of R1 000 each. Their case was remanded to 19 November 2012 for further investigation.
On this date their case was further remanded to the following dates: 29 November 2012 to 6 December for further investigation; 6 December 2012 to 11 January 2013 for further investigation; 11 January 2013 to 4 March for plea and trial (SERI was given incomplete disclosure); and 4 March 2013 to 15 March for complete disclosure, plea and trial. On 15 March 2013 the prosecution failed to provide the required charge sheet(s) and the matter was, by agreement, postponed to 3 June 2013 for plea and trial. This was again postponed in order to give the Senior Public Prosecutor time to look at representations made by the accused.
While the charges against Swetsana and Sisulu were eventually dropped, Moyo is still charged with "intimidation" in terms of the Intimidation Act 72 of 1982.
In April 2014, an application was launched in the North Gauteng High Court - Moyo and Another v Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Others - to declare section 1(1)(b) of the Intimidation Act unconstitutional and invalid. Moyo's trial in the Germiston Regional Magistrate’s Court will be postponed until this challenge is finally determined.
- Case entry and papers for Moyo and Another v Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Others here.
- Representations to the Senior Public Prosecutor (28 May 2013) here.
- Notice of objection to charge (28 May 2013) here.
- The Criminal Injustice System by Jane Duncan, SACSIS (18 February 2013).
- Makause: The activist's fear of the police and the sunset by Mandy de Waal, Daily Maverick (25 October 2012).