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Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, expects to correct the irrational containment regulations.
On Tuesday, Dlamini-Zuma was granted leave to appeal against the finding in the Supreme Court that found the regulations unconstitutional, but was also ordered to look at those regulations that violate the Constitution.
Judge Norman Davis granted the minister’s appeal application last week.
Davis has only been granted leave to appeal insofar as it relates to the minister’s argument against Davis’s ruling that all the regulations, regardless of the level at which they were made, are invalid.
Her argument, that another court might come to another finding because Davis’s order was vague in his opinion and he acted outside his powers, was rejected.
Davis found, among other things, that the statement of a state of restriction in response to the Covid-19 pandemic was rational, but the promulgation of the level 4 and level 3 regulations was not rational because it could not be rationally committed with the goals of slowing down the infection rate or spread of the coronavirus.
He then gave the minister 14 court days to review and correct the regulations.
“. . . it is still necessary that the identified regulations, which have a clear lack of rationality and are not in accordance with the Constitution, be reviewed and corrected, ”Davis says in his statement.
Certain regulations, which did not need to be revised, were those relating to the sale of tobacco products, opening casinos and nightclubs, traveling across provincial borders, suspending initiation ceremonies and evictions.
Davis also pointed out in his order Tuesday that new regulations have already been promulgated, but it is not certain how many of them are in line with the Constitution. “It may be that some of the regulations (which he found unconstitutional) have already been corrected. Maybe not necessarily from a constitutional approach, but at least from a rational approach, ”Davis says.
He gave the minister another ten days, under his original order, to review and correct the unconstitutional regulations.
Reyno de Beer of the Liberty Fighters Network (LFN), which brought the original application, says the restriction regulations violate people’s constitutional rights. This group has asked for it to be annulled.
