The Riotous Assemblies Act was passed in 1956 to prohibited gatherings in open-air public places if the Minister of Justice considered they could endanger the public peace.
It was also aimed at prohibiting the "engendering of feelings of hostility between Europeans and non-Europeans".
The law came into being after delegates had gathered the previous year at a Congress of the People to discuss the Freedom charter‚ at Kliptown‚ Soweto.
The notorious law was also used as the title of a satirical book in 1971 - 'Riotous Assembly'‚ by Tom Sharpe‚ which mocked apartheid and the police who enforced it.
The two charges against Malema are for contravention of section 18 (2) (b) of the Riotous Assemblies Act. The summons alleges that on the December 16‚ during the party’s elective conference‚ Malema incited party members to commit a crime‚ by occupying any vacant land they came across. A second summons indicated that he has been charged a second time for a similar transgression for making the same call in Newcastle on June 26.
The original complaint against Malema‚ which was laid in December 2014 by AfriForum‚ was made in terms of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE) (Act no. 19 of 1998)‚ in terms of which it is illegal for a person to occupy land without the permission of the owner or person in charge of the land.
Apartheid-era law used against Julius Malema
The Riotous Assemblies Act was passed in 1956 to prohibited gatherings in open-air public places if the Minister of Justice considered they could endanger the public peace.
It was also aimed at prohibiting the "engendering of feelings of hostility between Europeans and non-Europeans".
The law came into being after delegates had gathered the previous year at a Congress of the People to discuss the Freedom charter‚ at Kliptown‚ Soweto.
The notorious law was also used as the title of a satirical book in 1971 - 'Riotous Assembly'‚ by Tom Sharpe‚ which mocked apartheid and the police who enforced it.
The two charges against Malema are for contravention of section 18 (2) (b) of the Riotous Assemblies Act. The summons alleges that on the December 16‚ during the party’s elective conference‚ Malema incited party members to commit a crime‚ by occupying any vacant land they came across. A second summons indicated that he has been charged a second time for a similar transgression for making the same call in Newcastle on June 26.
The original complaint against Malema‚ which was laid in December 2014 by AfriForum‚ was made in terms of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE) (Act no. 19 of 1998)‚ in terms of which it is illegal for a person to occupy land without the permission of the owner or person in charge of the land.
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