Over 370 organisations plan to conduct a silent march to Constitution Hill in Johannesburg on Tuesday, as part of protest against the draft Protection of Information Bill.
“The Right2Know campaign aims to raise awareness about the threat that the Protection of Information Bill “the secrecy bill” poses to our democracy,” the organisation's spokesman Mark Weinberg said in a statement.
“(We want to) mobilise South Africans to demand that the Bill be scrapped in its current form.”
Marchers were expected to meet at noon on Tuesday outside Wits University's Senate House entrance in Jorissen Street and start marching towards Constitution Hill.
“We will start off with the singing of the national anthem and then listen to a poem written by one of our partners. We will then have a member of the SA history archives talk about the info bill,” the campaign's Gauteng convener Ayesha Kajee told Sapa in a telephone interview.
“Lastly, a member of the anti-privatisation forum will talk about the potential impact of the bill on communities at grassroots level,” she said.
Pickets were also expected to take place in Durban and Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday, with a comedy evening ending the campaign's first day in Cape Town.
Supporters of the campaign included the Media Institute of Southern Africa, Media Monitoring Africa, the Professional Journalists Association, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and writer Nadine Gordimer.
Campaign activities would take place until October 27. - Sapa