Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s warning that government could again declare a State of Disaster if COVID-19 infections spiral, has elicited threats that any such move would be met with litigation.
SA exited the State of Disaster on Monday (6 April) and the country has entered a 30-day transitional post-disaster management period that will be legislated accordingly.
The pandemic is now being managed under the National Health Act while the draft Health Regulations have been published for public comment – and close on 16 April.
Once the comments have been considered, the new regulations will be finalised and promulgated. “If we look after ourselves, wear masks and make sure that we do what needs to be done… we may avoid a situation where this pandemic becomes a disaster again. That is what we’re hoping for. In the event that it becomes a disaster, we will have to revert back to the Act,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, the National Employers Association said it is preparing a High Court challenge against some of the health regulations. Business Day reports that it said the proposed regulations would place the country in a “permanent State of Disaster” and were at odds with the counsel provided by the ministerial advisory committee on COVID-19. For example, the committee had recommended scrapping COVID-19 contact tracing and quarantine, saying that while these measures were appropriate in the early stages of the pandemic when authorities sought to contain transmission, they were no longer useful.
Professor Dewald van Niekerk, an expert in disaster management at the North West University, said the government would have to follow several procedures before a State of Disaster could be declared again. According to a Beeld report, he questions the “transitional regulations” and whether they are legally competent.
“I read through the Disaster Management Act again this morning and there is no mention of transitional regulations. Why is the government doing it? It could rather have extended the State of Disaster for another month.” Van Niekerk says he suspects the government sought to avert pending litigation challenging the rationality of its decisions.
Ramaphosa said during his announcements the “transitional regulations” are not enforceable, but more akin to “recommendations”.
Fedhasa has welcomed the lifting of the State of Disaster but called for the urgent removal of the PCR test requirement for unvaccinated children between the ages of five and 12. Business Day reports that chair Rosemary Anderson said that while Ramaphosa’s announcement meant an end to many rules, such as temperature checking and contact tracing, the PCR test for unvaccinated children “is damaging inbound family travel to South Africa as well as hindering SA families from travelling”.
Anderson said after the country was red-listed by other countries at the end of last year, it had caused untold damage to the tourism and hospitality sector and job losses.
Infectious diseases specialist Salim Abdool Karim warned that a fifth wave was expected in early May. However, he said this was largely dependent on the emergence of a new coronavirus variant in the country. “If the past trends continue, we can expect a fifth wave some time in early May. But that’s always dependent on whether there is a new variant,” he said in an interview with 702.
The Citizen reports that Karim, who chaired the Ministerial Advisory Committee (MAC) on COVID-19, welcomed government’s decision to lift the State of Disaster. “Given that we are now in a situation where the epidemic has reached a point of low transmission, it’s a good time to ease the restrictions. I think we need to just remember that we’re still living in the midst of a pandemic, don’t forget that,” Karim said.
Health Minister Joe Phaahla urged SA to scale up the vaccination programme, saying if 70% of the population were vaccinated they would not need the preventive regulations to combat the disease. IoL reports him as saying 44.5% of the adult population had now been vaccinated.
The country had initially targeted to reach 70% of the population by the end of last December, but this was moved to early this year. “If we can reach 70% of the adult population vaccinated, even these kinds of preventative measures, which we are pronouncing, will be unnecessary because once we reach 70% coverage then there will be good enough protection that even these measures will not be required,” said Phaahla.
In a letter to Phaahla, the DA’s spokesperson on health, Michéle Clarke, warned that the new regulations would ultimately force South Africans to have compulsory medical examinations, tests and treatment for certain notifiable medical conditions (NMC) in the event they tested positive, or merely were suspected of testing positive, for an NMC (which would include COVID-19).
The Mercury reports that Clarke said it appeared that under certain conditions, people would be forced to get vaccinated.
Writing in PoliticsWeb, Cilliers Brink, the DA’s national spokesperson, said the party welcomed the lifting of the State of Disaster – under which South Africa had suffered for 750 days, one of the longest in the world – but it was extremely worrying that despite the formal “lifting”, the government seemed hell-bent on normalising the restrictions faced for so long by introducing regulations to the Health Act that will “effectively normalise this very abnormal state of affairs and shift the power of unnatural regulations to the Minister of Health”.
Michael Swain, the executive director of Freedom of Religion SA, said the organisation had asked the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities to intervene regarding the regulations. Swain said the regulations violated religious freedom rights. He added that the regulations further allowed for the possibility of compelled “treatment”, which was undefined and could include compulsory vaccination.
Beeld article – Ramptoestand kan terugkeer, meen kenners (Restricted access)
BusinessLive article – Hospitality industry cheers lifting of state of disaster (Open access)
BusinessDay Pressreader article – Phaahla depends plan for new Covid rules (Open access)
IOL article – Joe Phaahla calls for increase in vaccination to reach 70% of population (Open access)
The Mercury Pressreader article – Concern over amendment to draft health regulations (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Experts and opposition seethe over yet another State of Disaster extension
Fresh calls to lift State of Disaster and legal challenge from Sakeliga
Western Cape rejects lockdown in favour of targeted local interventions
South African government has ‘quietly de-prioritised vaccinations’