The article gives the impression that he had permission to be there, "...he had been told a document stamped by the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court and police five years ago and by the Family Court only last Wednesday, was sufficient."
It doesn't tell us if he had permission to be there at the time he was arrested though - I've seen two or three different articles, none of them cover this. Did the stamped document give him permission to busk outside of the official busking hours? Was he in fact arrested outside of the allowed hours? At this stage we don't know.
They do say that he “repeatedly disregarded regulations and was verbally abusive to our officials for months, thus resulting in multiple warnings being issued to him”. While yelling at an official is never going to help any situation, he was trying to defend his job - so it is understandable that he would get quite vocal.
There must have been people complaining for the metro police to have bothered with him at all, but it seems that the majority had no problem with him. So perhaps they were required by law to do something, but things like this shouldn't happen in a democratic country.
I agree with Chris,
chris77 wrote
It might be legal and it might be according to the rule of law, but it sure as hell ain't right.
