Personal care shutdown ‘is invalid’
DA challenges government ban in court
THE DA has taken the government to court over the continued shutdown of the personal care services industry, including hairdressers and nail and beauty salons, calling it “unconstitutional and unreasonable”.
The party yesterday filed urgent papers in the Western Cape High Court to have the ban and “criminalisation of personal care” declared invalid and unconstitutional.
This comes after the DA gave Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma a deadline of last Wednesday to provide them with the reasons and rationale for the ban.
The DA said Cogta acknowledged receipt of their letter sent on June 1, but provided no substantive response to any of the issues raised.
“The minister has also failed to meet a self-imposed deadline to publish regulations for the industry as she had promised by June 5.
“The DA, therefore, has been left with no choice but to take this legal step to save the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people who have suffered at the hands of this government that does not care about them, and could not be bothered to provide any reasons for their hardship,” DA spokesperson for Trade and Industry Dean Macpherson said.
He said the party believed it was simply unjustifiable that almost every other industry was allowed to operate subject to health protocols, except the personal care industry.
“Closing this industry does not stop people getting haircuts, piercings or tattoos. It stops people keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table.
“After more than two months of lockdown, any continued prohibition would require the most compelling justification. We believe there simply is none,” he said.
In its court papers, the DA said the industry was made up of small businesses that employed “hundreds of thousands of people across South Africa who are precluded from earning a living”.
It said the regulations under lockdown level 3 also granted “a near-unfettered discretion to some unidentified Cabinet minister” to decide which services were safe to resume and under what conditions, without providing any criteria or guidelines for those determinations.
“That unfettered sub-delegation of legislative power is patently unlawful,” the party’s affidavit read.
The DA said it believed the indefinite ban also violated section 22 of the Constitution, which allows citizens the right to practise their trade, occupation or profession freely.
The DA said it was bringing the application in the interests of thousands of people involved in and employed by the personal care services industry who had no resources to access legal representation.
Cogta did not respond to questions sent to the department.