New surveillance regulations should be challenged
Marcus Tulius Cicero is credited with the words: “The closer the collapse of an empire, the crazier its laws”.
The current political establishment has allowed the ANC to literally do as they please with impunity at SA’s collective peril since 1994.
It is an indictment against the current political establishment that, under the Ramaphosa presidency, the unity of the ANC continues to enjoy primary priority ahead of the best interests of the country, as witnessed during Covid-19, where pandemonium and theft have been permitted to compound the unimaginable personal and public misery the pandemic brought with it, when the “bulletproof” ANC elite were allowed to raid the state’s resources for their own benefit despite Ramaphosa’s promises to the contrary.
This in my view is in all likelihood set to continue in the rebuilding efforts in KwaZuluNatal after the recent climatic devastation which was greatly compounded due to neglect of storm water infrastructure and routine maintenance.
This situation has been worsened by the National Coronavirus Command Council and several ministers, on their own whim, having passed a plethora of laws and regulations with no regard for the constitutional rights and best interests of the citizens of SA.
These range from the preposterous bans we were subjected to in April 2020 to the recent passing of permanent regulations ameding the National Health Act, while purporting to care about the public opinion.
Yes, while we were sleeping last week, and moments before midnight on May 4, the minister of health saw it fit to introduce further irrational legislation by way of publishing Regulations to the Surveillance and the Control of Notifiable Medical Conditions: Amendment 2022 in the Government Gazette.
These new surveillance regulations are unlawful, procedurally irrational and impermissibly infringe our constitutional rights.
The Covid-19 lockdown induced stranglehold that the ANC has used and abused for their own hegemonic advantage, can no longer justifiably continue to be imposed upon us as citizens.
Such political sleight of hand should, in a vigilant and healthy democracy, be vigorously countered by the opposition and opposed through the legislative processes enshrined and provided for in our constitution.
However, in reality we experience that the excesses of this ANC government are not effectively countered in the legislatures of the land, and the public is forced to continuously contest this government’s rule in our courts.
We as a new political entity not yet represented at provincial legislature level or in the National Assembly, are per force required to contest these constitutional excesses and breaches in court.
This is a costly affair when they should in fact be countered in the handsomely wellfunded and comfortably equipped realm of the state legislatures.
ActionSA will accordingly be seeking leave to join legal action instituted against the minister of health last week by DearSA and AfriForum.
The time for political parties allowing these excesses and being overwhelmed by the forbearance of the ANC into countenance, while the ruling party continues with their unchecked tyrannical rule, must now end.
ActionSA cannot remain silent in the face of the endless arbitrary and irrational implementation of laws; laws which do not serve our citizens.
In addition, it is now time for South Africans to grasp the nettle and remove the odious ANC from government by voting for a new political party and dispensation that will usher in an era united in collaboration to bring about moral and ethical renewal and social, and economic prosperity, for all South Africans.
The ANC knows its rule is in a precarious decline.
Their latest and any future attempts to impose repressive legislation that harms the citizens of this country must be stopped.
ActionSA has committed to do everything in our power not only to counter the ANC but present our alternative political offering to the entire electorate in preparation for the forthcoming national and provincial elections in 2024.
In the interim we will also contest by-elections where vacancies occur at local government level to secure our representation in municipal councils across all nine provinces, where we will display the kind of muscular opposition so sorely needed against the current ANC government.
Such political sleight of hand should, in a vigilant and healthy democracy, be vigorously countered by the opposition and opposed through legislative processes’