Forced quarantine by state illegal — court
The government may not force patients who test positive for Covid-19 into compulsory state quarantine if they are able to self-isolate, the high court in Pretoria ruled on Wednesday. AfriForum claimed the ruling as a victory after challenging the regulations.
Co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma faces the prospect of being pursued for contempt of court after missing a court-ordered deadline to file an answer to the first major legal challenge to the government’s cigarette ban.
The minister had until the close of business on Wednesday to respond under oath to lobby group Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association’s (Fita) challenge to the rationality of the tobacco ban, which is due to be heard by the high court in Pretoria next week.
But the deadline went unheeded, seemingly without explanation or apology.
Fita chair Sinenhlanhla Mnguni said on Wednesday it was “beyond comprehension” that President Cyril Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma, “despite the significant time periods afforded to them, had failed to serve their answering affidavit timeously”.
But, perhaps more damaging, her as yet unexplained failure to file her response could reinforce speculation that the state does not have any real evidence to justify the cigarette ban and is simply trying to prevent the case from being heard through unwarranted delays.
Should the minister fail to file a response to Fita’s court action in the coming days, Mnguni said his organisation would weigh its options with regard to pursuing her for contempt of court. He said Fita was very concerned by the conduct of the state attorney who sought, for the second time, to postpone the case.
On Tuesday, state attorney Arista Wasserman wrote directly to judge Dunstan Mlambo asking him to delay the hearing of Fita’s application by at least two weeks. Wasserman argued that Dlamini-Zuma needed more time to provide the court with a record of the documents and information that led the government to continue the tobacco ban into level 3.
The minister has already provided a record of the information she says led to the government’s level 4 smoking ban decision, which Fita contends is largely irrelevant to the tobacco ban and fails to provide any compelling evidence to justify it.
The ban has led to a loss of tax revenue and boosted illicit cigarette sales. The SA Revenue Service had expected to collect R14.5bn on excise taxes for tobacco over 12 months.
The government, which is facing an increase in court cases related to the lockdown, is having to deal with another challenge in the high court in Cape Town from British American Tobacco SA, supported by Japan Tobacco International, as well as groups and organisations representing the tobacco value chain.
Dlamini-Zuma, however, appears to dispute that the ban has resulted in a boom in the illicit trade of cigarettes.
Mnguni said Ramaphosa and Dlamini-Zuma “have not brought a substantive application for postponement”.
“On this basis alone, we submit, the request for a delay of the hearing should be denied. We have unequivocally stated that we oppose any request for a postponement and would seek the opportunity of addressing it fully should the application for a postponement be entertained.”
Mnguni said Fita did not consider Wasserman’s direct communication with Mlambo appropriate, given that he is one of the three judges set to hear its case on June 9-10.
Mlambo has not responded to Wasserman’s letter, in which she insisted that the state’s request for a postponement of the case was not “a delaying tactic on the part of the president and the minister”.
“It is an attempt to ensure that the lawfulness of regulation 45 [which governs the cigarette ban under lockdown level 3] is justly determined,” she said.