The Freedom of Expression Institute have produced a very useful copyleft guide to organising legal marches and to responding to illegal police action and illegal bans by City Managers and others. It is availabe here on this site and here at the FXI site in pdf.

It's quite instructive to contrast the law, as it is carefully elaborated in the FXI handbook, with the reality of what has actually happened to Abahlali baseMjondolo protests. Clic

Police repression in Protea South an indicator of a national trend
5 September 2007
Issued by the Freedom of Expression Institute

The Freedom of Expression Institute's concern about police repression of protests – especially those organized by poor communities against the lack of service delivery – was heightened this week with the highly- publicized housing protest in Protea South which was violently attacked by police.

FXI staff were eyewitnesses to acts of police harassment against Protea South residents Monday morning. Maureen Mnisi, a community leader and Gauteng Chairperson of the Landless People's Movement, was arrested while trying to speak with the media. She and at least five other community members were taken into custody and released, without being charged, after spending the night in jail. FXI staff overheard a police captain admitting that he had "always wanted to arrest" Mnisi.

PRESS STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RE: FXI disturbed by growing number of state violations of the right to protest

15/11/2005

The Freedom of Expression Institute is disturbed at the growing number of violations of the right to protest by local authorities and the police. Mounting evidence suggests that more local governments are abusing their power to authorise or disallow gatherings to stifle dissent against their own performance. If this trend continues, then freedom of expression stands to be eroded at a time when it is needed most, namely in the run up to the local government elections. Given that a number of these violations involve local governments suppressing expressions of discontent around the state of service delivery, the freeness and fairness of local government elections may be adversely affected. This is because views expressed in these protests, that are crucial for communities to evaluate the performance of