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Members of the national command council update the media.
- The Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled that the National Coronavirus Command Council is legal and constitutional.
- By dismissing another court offer to declare the NCCC and the closure regulations unconstitutional, the SCA found the committee’s decisions valid.
- Since the NCCCEstablished last year, its constitutionality has been questioned by lawyers and opposition parties.
There can be no more confusion about the legality of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) – it is legal and constitutional.
This was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Appeals which, upon hearing an appeal from a Western Cape Superior Court ruling, dismissed a request from a group of concerned residents who challenged the legality of the establishment of the NCCC and the validity of the rules of closing.
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In his ruling, Judge Clive Plasket said: “The NCCC is a cabinet committee. That is not in dispute. Nor is it in dispute that the cabinet can function through committees and that decisions made by cabinet committees bind the entire cabinet as well as decisions made by the entire cabinet in a cabinet meeting. The result is that the NCCC’s political decision was a valid cabinet decision. “
The constitutionality of the NCCC has been challenged by lawyers and opposition parties, and many have approached the courts, but without overturning the council’s decisions.
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There have also been demands for access to the minutes of how decisions are made.
When the NCCC was formed as a cabinet committee, it consisted of the president and 19 ministers.
Five days later, on March 20, 2020, it was expanded to include the entire Cabinet.
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The creation, function and operation of the NCCC was established on March 15, 2020.
On that day, the Cabinet made the decision to create it as a Cabinet structure that would be dedicated exclusively to addressing the pandemic. At that stage, it was made up of 19 Cabinet members and was chaired by the president. .
“The ministers who first made up the NCCC were chosen based on the important anticipated roles their departments would play in dealing with the pandemic,” Plasket said.
The NCCC provided a high-level multidisciplinary forum for ministers to “gain the buy-in, advice, and support of their fellow cabinet members for the decisions they must make, and provides the cabinet with an opportunity to ensure that consensus positions are taken. “.
In May, Ramaphosa called a special Cabinet meeting to review the NCCC’s terms of reference amid the legal action he was facing at the time.
The Presidency has previously defended the NCCC as a Cabinet structure, but questions have been raised about its authority to make decisions.
Later that month, two high-profile advocates wrote a legal letter to Ramaphosa requesting clarity on the powers exercised by the NCCC.
In a nine-page letter via RHK Attorneys, advocates Nazeer Cassim and Erin Dianne Richards said they were concerned about potential risks of constitutional and democratic malfunction.
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They argued that their concerns stemmed from what appeared to be the questionable establishment, structure and functions of the NCCC, as well as the government’s notable lack of transparency over the body.
In a letter dated May 5, the Director General of the Presidency, Cassius Lubisi, accused the two defenders of “endangering the measures taken to save South African lives.”
