Dlamini-Zuma wants specifics

GOVT: APPLIES FOR LEAVE TO APPEAL DECISION ON LOCKDOWN RULES

‘Some regulations rationally connected to stated objectives.’

Reyno de Beer, the man who got some lockdown regulations declared unconstitutional, said yesterday he still felt confident in the ruling Judge Norman Davis handed down earlier this month.

Founder and president of NGO the Liberty Fighters Network, De Beer was speaking on the sidelines of government’s application for leave to appeal the ruling in the High Court in Pretoria.

De Beer felt he and his legal team put up a strong case yesterday. “The fact is that government is trying to rely on technicalities. We are saying that irrespective of what technicalities there may or may not be, the matter still needs to be adjudicated in the interests of justice”.

Whether or not government – and specifically Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma – will get another chance to defend the regulations, remains to be seen with judgment reserved yesterday.

Advocate Wim Trengove, who represented Dlamini-Zuma, argued there needed to be more detail around which specific regulations were declared unconstitutional and invalid – and why – in order for the minister to remedy the defects.

He said a finding that some regulations were invalid did not justify an order declaring all of them invalid. “There are two bases on which leave may be granted, the first is that the appeal will have a reasonable prospect of success. The second is that there are compelling reasons of public interest.”

He said in this case, there was significant public interest.

However, advocate Reg Willis, on behalf of De Beer, was adamant leave should not be granted as the regulations “simply won’t survive an ultimate re-hearing”.

In his initial judgment, Davis said: “The cautionary regulations relating to education, prohibitions against evictions, initiation practices and the closures of nightclubs and fitness centres, as well as the closure of borders, all appear to be rationally connected to the stated objectives.”

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