Lockdown ball now in NDZ’s court

NEXT MOVE: SUPREME COURT OF APPEAL IS OPTION

Minister granted leave to appeal an earlier ruling that the lockdown regulations are invalid.

Judge extends required regulations amendments for another 10 days.

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma this week achieved partial success with her application for leave to appeal Judge Norman Davis’ June ruling, declaring the lockdown regulations invalid.

Davis on Tuesday granted her leave to appeal his “blanket” declaration to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), but he refused it in respect of specific regulations that he had “expressly identified” as displaying “a clear lack of rationality and constitutional compliance”.

Davis originally gave Dlamini-Zuma 14 business days to bring the regulations up to scratch, but this was suspended four days later when the minister launched her application for leave to appeal.

On Tuesday, Davis set the clock running again in respect of the identified regulations and said Dlamini-Zuma now had 10 business days to remedy them.

Constitutional law expert Paul Hoffman yesterday said the minister could now petition the SCA to also hear an appeal on Davis’ findings in respect of these regulations and that if she did, the deadline would be suspended again.

If she chooses not to, however, these are some the regulations which would fall to be either amended or scrapped in the coming weeks:

Exercise – In terms of the Level 3 regulations, outdoor exercise is allowed between 6am and 6pm.

The minister recently gazetted an amendment which allows for group exercise as long as it is not done in groups of more than four.

But in his original judgment, Davis labelled the limitations on exercise “perplexing”.

Children – Under Level 3, the movement of children parents and/or caregivers in the same car is allowed, subject to there being either a court order or formal agreement in place or a permit being secured.

Davis found these placed “irrational obstacles in the way of those responsible for children”.

Funerals – Although the ban on night vigils was recently lifted, funeral attendance remains heavily restricted under Level 3.

Davis found there was “no rational connection to the objectives for the limitation on the degree of the familial relationship to a deceased in order to permissibly attend his or her funeral”.

Beaches and public parks – They remain closed under Level 3, but Davis found this, too, was irrational.

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Lack of rationality, constitutional compliance