Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are legal suits that are meant to silence critics. While anti-SLAPP defenses have gained considerable traction in the United States (U.S.) and more recently across Europe and the United Kingdom (UK), their comprehensive integration into African legal frameworks remains to be fully realized. 1 This contribution examines the role of civil society actors in resisting SLAPPs within the context of business and human rights litigation in Southern Africa. The prevailing understanding of SLAPPs typically involves a powerful corporate entity initiating legal proceedings against activists and journalists in response to public statements concerning the corporation. More recent trends from the Global South, however, indicate that SLAPPs manifest in various forms, encompassing both criminal and civil legal actions initiated by influential corporations and/or elite individuals against activists, journalists, and bloggers who have publicly expressed concerns about them. 2 This essay focuses on Southern Africa’s civil society interventions and the role that these interventions have played in shaping the emerging anti-SLAPP jurisprudence. This is evidenced through doctrinal engagement with courts, strategic coalition-building, and normative advocacy grounded in international human rights standards. The analysis focuses on the SLAPP case law and offers a practice-oriented framework for understanding how civic action can counter legal harassment by corporate and politically connected actors in fragile institutional contexts.
Bridget Mafusire (Thu,) studied this question.