Participative democracy group Dear South Africa has filed an urgent application with the Pretoria High Court asking it to declare last week’s lockdown extension unlawful and to set it aside.
The group has given the government until Wednesday to oppose the matter.
It says the latest lockdown extension announced on Friday is illogical and was done without parliamentary oversight, as required by the constitution.
The only respondent in the case is Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
Papers were served on the minister on Monday.
The lockdown extensions are allowed in terms of the Disaster Management Act only to protect and provide relief to the public, or to prevent disruption and deal with the disruptive effects of the pandemic.
The latest stats show that just over 20 000 people have died in SA from the virus, while the original objectives of imposing the lockdown in March, slowing the spread of the virus to prevent the health system being overwhelmed, have been achieved.
“South Africa is no longer faced with the uncertainties that it was confronted with when the initial state of disaster was enacted,” says Daniël Eloff of Hurter Spies, the attorneys representing Dear SA.
“Consequently, the government cannot continue to piggyback on a state of disaster for which the underlying and motivating reason has largely dispersed eight months since the initial declaration of the national state of disaster.”
In an affidavit for Dear SA, director Rob Hutchinson says the minister is able to extend the lockdowns ad infinitum without parliamentary oversight, while the constitutional rights of South Africans are being infringed. These rights include freedom of movement, residence, assembly, economic activity and education. Businesses were shut down at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown, schools were closed, and citizens’ rights to move and practice their professions and trades were severely curtailed.
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