Minister of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma must, by 9 December, deliver the records of the government’s decisions on the COVID-19 disaster management regulations, after Sakeliga’s recent court victory against her.
This comes after a two-year legal battle since Sakeliga requested the records in 2020, its CEO Piet le Roux said. The records relate to the decision-making processes followed in 2020 to place the country under a State of Disaster and the implementation of lockdown and its subsequent extensions.
“These lockdowns and other measures did unprecedented harm to economic and social activity,” added Le Roux. “The public will now be able to see why Dlamini-Zuma and her department imposed police state conditions on the public to ensure people stayed in their homes, schools and universities remained closed, churches could not congregate, and businesses remained shut.”
Le Roux said he hoped the public would use the records as an “impetus and grounding” to hold the government accountable for the harmful decisions and to prevent such egregious abuses of power re-occurring, reports Pretoria News.
What is expected to be revealed is all records, reasons, reports, findings, deliberations, communications, memoranda and/or further documentation relied upon by the Minister when she repeatedly exercised far-reaching powers under the Disaster Management Act to keep the country under erratic lockdown measures.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Fresh calls to lift State of Disaster and legal challenge from Sakeliga
Court threats over South Africa’s ‘permanent State of Disaster’
National Health Act replaces SOD but ‘heavy hand’ remains, say critics
South Africa's lockdown was based on ‘crude and exaggerated’ evidence