The DA and the FF Plus have decided to appeal to the Supreme Court regarding the ongoing overall nationwide lockdown that is combating the Covid-19 pandemic. This after Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday night indicated that level 4 of the coronavirus isolation period would still apply for the next two weeks before level 3 could be introduced in much of the country.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said in a virtual media conference on Thursday that the party’s legal representatives had filed lawsuits with the Supreme Court earlier today to fight the rationality of three of the lockdown rules. These regulations include the evening clock rule, the ban on e-commerce and the limited practice times during the isolation.
Steenhuisen said the DA’s legal team will also file court papers on Friday to question the constitutionality of the lockdown regulations.
“The threat from the nationwide isolation is so much greater than the threat posed by the virus,” Steenhuisen said.
Dr. Pieter Groenewald, leader of the FF Plus, also indicated that his party will submit an urgent application to the Supreme Court to contest the validity of the National Disaster Management Act and to ask the court to find that the government is abusing this law. This, the FF Plus argues, will mean that the disaster situation and the associated seclusion regulations are unconstitutional.
Steenhuisen and Groenewald both argue that the president has already acknowledged that the nationwide seclusion has reached its goal by flattening the infection curve sufficiently to allow health services time to prepare for a larger outbreak of Covid-19. “Why wait another two weeks?” Steenhuisen wanted to know.
Groenewald says it has always been important to find a meaningful balance between spreading the virus and unlocking the country’s economy. “Waiting two more weeks to move down to level 3 will seriously disturb this balance,” Groenewald said.
Pres. Ramaphosa during a speech in Port Elizabeth on Thursday, asked people not to be unnecessarily upset about the application of the isolation measures. “We’re not going to stay at level 4 forever. We will move to level 3, and maybe even earlier than the end of the month. We realize that the way we apply lockdown does not satisfy everyone, but we can assure you that we make informed decisions. ”
