Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu announced that the government would urgently appeal the Gauteng High Court ruling this week that some lockdown regulations were unconstitutional and invalid.
He also announced that the Cabinet had approved extending the National State of Disaster by a month, from 15 June to 15 July. The extension was required as the law allowed only for a 90-day state of disaster.
Responding to the ruling by Judge Norman Davis that some of the level 3 and 4 regulations were ‘irrational’ and did not serve the purpose of countering the Covid-19 pandemic, Mthembu said: ‘After obtaining legal advice and listening to numerous comments made by members of the legal fraternity in reaction to the judgment, we are of the view that another court might come to a different conclusion on the matter.’
The government would ask for its appeal to be heard urgently.
The High Court finding was the only topic of discussion in yesterday’s virtual Cabinet meeting, he said.
Positive cases in South Africa rose by 3 267 to 40 792, and 56 deaths – 54 in the Western Cape – raised the toll to 848. There have been 21 311 recoveries.
News24 reported that a three-phase survey entailing more than 12 000 questionnaires by the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) points to anxiety about loss of earnings and hunger.
UJ’s Centre for Social Change chairperson, Professor Kate Alexander, said of questions about food parcels: ‘The deputy director reported that less than 800 000 parcels had been distributed by the Department [of Social Development], the Solidarity Fund and non-profit organisations. This figure represents less than 1.5% of the population and can be compared with about 30% going to bed hungry, according to our data.
‘Further, the parcels are only expected to last for about three weeks, and we have now had nearly 10 weeks of the lockdown. So very many people are now hungry, many are malnourished, and it is likely that some are starving.’
Alexander said to avoid having people starving, it was important vulnerable people were given food if they could not afford to buy it.
Businesslive reported that co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has urged the high court, should it find that the regulations banning cigarette sales under the lockdown are unlawful, to refer these back to her for ‘reconsideration’.
Dlamini-Zuma is quoted as saying in court papers filed in the early hours of Thursday: ‘In the event that the court considers the decision-making process to have been flawed, or based on incorrect facts, I submit it would be just and equitable to keep the prohibition in place … pending a reconsideration, possibly with directions as to the information or factors to be considered’.
The report said Dlamini-Zuma initially faced the prospect of being pursued for contempt of court for missing the deadline to file her affidavit in the challenge to the cigarette ban by the Free-Trade and Independent Tobacco Association by the close of business on Wednesday, but managed to file her answer just after midnight.
The state wants the hearing, set down for 9 and 10 June, to be postponed, but the court has indicated it will only consider an application for a postponement once the hearing begins.
In the court papers, Dlamini-Zuma reiterates that her decision to promulgate the smoking ban regulations was motivated by evidence ‘that smokers are more likely to develop severe disease with Covid-19, compared to non-smokers’, and that the ‘prohibition of the sale of tobacco products (is) a rational and necessary measure to protect the public’.
She argues that the ban has also been supported by ‘various organisations within the SA medical fraternity’ — including the National Council Against Smoking, the SA Thoracic Society, the College of Public Health Medicine and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of SA.