Sakeliga, a lobby group largely representing the interests of Afrikaans business owners, has become the latest organisation to launch a legal challenge against the national State of Disaster, while the National Liquor Traders Council has also called for its scrapping.
“We expect the removal of the State of Disaster, the transfer of the responsibility of dealing with the pandemic to the Department of Health, and allowing the parliamentary process to resume to hold the executive to account on how they are dealing with COVID-19,” NLTC spokesperson Lucky Ntimane said.
Business Day reports Ntimane adding that Ramaphosa should consider extending support and relief packages to registered liquor traders. “The future of SA lies in entrepreneurship, and the support for small, black-owned businesses who support multitudes of jobs is extremely important,” he said.
The organisation would like to see the abolition of regulations that prevent government lending agencies assisting liquor traders with funding, he said.
Sakeliga, a lobby group largely representing the interests of Afrikaans business owners, has become the latest organisation to launch a legal challenge against the State of Disaster. It says there is clear evidence it is being maintained unconstitutionally, adds the Business Day report.
Sakeliga said legislation makes it clear that a national State of Disaster may only be declared by the minister of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs based on an existing classification of a national disaster by the National Disaster Management Centre.
“Not only should this classification be done independently, but also reassessed continuously. Only upon, and for as long as, the head of the National Disaster Management Centre has classified an event as a disaster may the minister of Co-Operative Governance & Traditional Affairs declare and maintain a national State of Disaster,” said Sakeliga CEO Piet le Roux. The National Disaster Management Centre has not conducted a reassessment independently and continuously as required by law, he added.
Business Day Pressreader article – Pressure mounts to lift State of Disaster (Open access)
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