Court lifts the lid on South Africa’s State of Disaster

FOR the first time since the declaration of the National State of Disaster for Covid-19 in March 2020, the veil of secrecy over the government’s decision-making processes regarding disaster management regulations will be lifted.

This is owing to Sakeliga’s court victory this month against Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. It concludes a two-year litigation battle.

The minister had to deliver the records Sakeliga requested back in 2020, its CEO, Piet le Roux, said.

The records relate to the decision-making processes followed in 2020 to place the country under lockdown, and its subsequent extensions.

“These lockdowns and other measures did unprecedented harm to economic and social activity.

“The public will now be able to see for what apparent reasons Dlamini Zuma and her department imposed police state conditions on the public to ensure people stayed in their homes, schools and universities remained closed, churches could not congregate, and businesses remained shut.”

Le Roux expressed the hope that the public would use the records as an impetus and grounding to hold the government to account for the harmful decisions and to prevent such egregious abuses of power re-occurring.

Under the terms of the court order, Dlamini Zuma must, by December 9, deliver the records of decision-making that led to the Covid lockdown.

These include all records, reasons, reports, findings, deliberations, communications, memoranda and/or further documentation relied upon by the minister when she repeatedly exercised far-reaching powers under the Disaster Management Act to keep the country in the grip of erratic lockdown measures.

“It is, of course, possible that Dlamini Zuma will claim that, in large part, the records to be provided in terms of the court order do not exist.

“Such a reaction would confirm suspicions that improper and arbitrary decision-making processes were followed in making Covid regulations.”

Le Roux added that the court order and subsequent release of the documents would mean that the government could be called on to account for the gravity of its actions.

Sakeliga said the legal battle to obtain the government’s records of decision-making on Covid regulations was sparked by its abuse of court rules and delaying tactics, such as filing irregular notices of complaint and later withdrawing them.

“Despite the government’s efforts to derail the case and keep it out of court, Sakeliga followed through with the process. The minister did not oppose the main application, and we were able to take a default judgment,” Le Roux said.

This is, however, not the end of Sakeliga’s litigation against the government. It is engaged in two other cases that seek to prevent future abuses of power in relation to communicable diseases.

A court application in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to prevent the Disaster Management Act from being misused in the future to enforce draconian measures through regulation-making is pending.

Sakeliga succeeded earlier this year in its legal bid to eliminate mandatory mask wearing, as well as mandatory vaccinations, but another application is also pending to prevent future attempts by the government at invasive health monitoring.

Le Roux said Sakeliga would consider proceeding with an application to hold Dlamini Zuma guilty of contempt of court if she failed to produce the relevant records by December 9.