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View of the Pretoria High Court.
Cornel van Heerden, Gallo Images, Image, archive
- The non-profit organization DearSA says it will not withdraw its judicial offer to have the extension of South Africa’s lockdown regulations overturned.
- The NGO says it intends to resubmit its court application early in the new year so that the government has enough time to prepare a response.
- The government extended the lockdown regulations on November 13.
The non-profit organization DearSA says it will not withdraw its judicial offer to have the extension of South Africa’s lockdown regulations overturned.
The organization says the lockdown regulations, which were extended on November 13, are illogical and have been implemented without parliamentary oversight. Therefore, it has submitted an urgent request to the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria for their annulment.
DearSA director Rob Hutchinson told News24 on Monday that the organization would not withdraw its legal challenge.
“Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs [Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma] He has not responded to the date we have given him, but since then he has asked us to give them time to prepare, “he said.
“We are definitely still taking them to court. There have just been some delays,” he added.
The organization believes that the country is no longer facing the uncertainties it faced when the initial state of disaster was enacted.
In a statement Tuesday, Hutchinson said Health Minister Zweli Mkhize “belatedly launched a request to intervene in the matter.”
He said no formal responses in court documents have been received from either party.
Case does not go away
“DearSA intends to resubmit its legal action challenging the lockdown extensions early in the new year to allow the government sufficient time to prepare its responses,” Hutchinson said.
“We decided that I would bring the case back in January 2021, after the court interruption, it would avoid a lot of time-wasting technical arguments, and by then the two relevant ministries will have had time to formulate their responses.
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“This is a case that should be brought to court, as we know it has great public support, given the responses to the various campaigns in which we gather public opinions about the closures and the impact they are having in the country. “
He said that given the delay in hearing the court request, there is a possibility that the government will extend the blockade again during the Christmas period.
“We have decided to give Minister Dlamini-Zuma and Minister Mkhize time to formulate their responses to our court documents. This is a case that we believe is vital for the future well-being of the country as it will determine the limits of state power now and now and then. in the future when it comes to disasters of this nature, “Hutchinson said.
“Our case is not going away. It should and will be heard early in the new year.”
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