MADLANGA J may need a small group of people, like one’s family. Why the circle of association is small is understandable. That is dictated by the nature of the underlying reason for the association. And personal relationships of this nature are less likely to attract justifiable state interference.32 The less individualised the need for associating, the larger the group with which one may have to associate. That may be the case with those who choose to associate for the purpose of, for example, pursuing religious or political objectives. Of course, that the circle is made bigger does not mean the state has a free hand in curtailing people’s choices on who to associate with and what to associate for. The protection of the right is about giving associations, whatever their size, room to achieve the objectives for which they exist. Haysom captures the need for the protection of freedom of association thus: “These are a wide range of reasons why freedom of association is so highly prized, vigorously protected and widely acclaimed as a cornerstone of a democratic society. These reasons belong to one or other of two perspectives: a perspective which emphasises the need to associate in order to realise fully one’s humanity – to interact, combine, make common purpose and enjoy life with other persons sharing one’s cultural, personal, political or economic interests. The second perspective emphasises the necessity to a functioning democracy of such a freedom, for a proper and coherent expression and interplay of collective interests. Both perspectives are, however, grounded on the same understanding that a person alone is an atomised, powerless, lonely being without a foundation for developing an identity or the capacity to influence or change his or her physical environment or social world.”33 32 Compare Roberts v United States Jaycees 468 US 609 (1984) at 618. Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development v Prince [2018] ZACC 30; 2018 (6) SA 393 (CC); 2018 (10) BCLR 1220 (CC) at para 44 quotes Bernstein v Bester N.O. [1996] ZACC 2; 1996 (2) SA 751 (CC); 1996 (4) BCLR 449 (CC) on the same point. 33 Haysom above n 27. 13