MADLANGA J “1. Every individual shall have the right to free association provided [she or] he abides by the law. 2. Subject to the obligation of solidarity provided for in Article 29, no one may be compelled to join an association.”59 The applicants in the first consolidated application60 – apparently acting in the public interest – made common cause with Reverend Mtikila. The ACHPR held unanimously on this issue: “It is the view of the Court that freedom of association is negated if an individual is forced to associate with others. Freedom of association is also negated if other people are forced to join up with the individual. In other words freedom of association implies freedom to associate and freedom not to associate.”61 I am quite alive to the fact that, unlike section 18 of our Constitution or Article 11 of the European Convention, paragraph 2 of Article 10 of the African Charter specifically provides for the negative right: “no one may be compelled to join an association”. What I make of this is discussed shortly. Article 11 of the European Convention compares better with section 18 of the Constitution. That is so because, like section 18, it does not have an express proscription of coerced association. For that reason, the ECHR decisions in Young,62 According to the ACHPR, the relevant cross-reference in Article 29 is 29(4) “which imposes a duty on the individual to ‘preserve and strengthen social and national solidarity, particularly when the latter is threatened’”. (Tanganyika Law Society above n 57 at para 112). 59 60 The Tanganyika Law Society and the Legal and Human Rights Centre. 61 Tanganyika Law Society above n 57 at para 113. 62 Young above n 37. 20