Lockdown regulations are justified, high court rules

An application heard in the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town on Friday to have government’s lockdown regulations declared invalid was dismissed.

The applicants also wanted the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) declared inconsistent with the Constitution and the Disaster Management Act.

Each party was ordered to pay their own costs.

This comes three weeks after Judge Norman Davis, in a separate matter, heard an urgent challenge to the regulations from rights group Liberty Fighters Network. Davis identified a handful of regulations which he said “passed muster” but declared the majority unconstitutional and invalid and gave cabinet 14 days to review, amend and republish them.

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On Friday, Judge Rosheni Allie said in her judgment that the argument that there is no rational connection between compelling people to remain indoors and the objective of containing the spread of the virus is a fallacious one.

This is because the science as demonstrated by the expert affidavit of Professor Abdool Karim is that there is no fail-safe in the use of protocols but it is the only known way of attempting to protect people from having contact with the virus.

“The means used to contain the spread of the virus are also justified because it was the only known method of containment available at the time and currently there is no guaranteed method of containment free of risks in any event.”

“I am satisfied that the regulations are justified and it is conceptually not possible to interpret the objectives of protect and relieve; prevent disruption and deal with the effects of a novel global pandemic which is transmitted by means of droplets when people cough, sneeze, talk and even exhale in circumstances where the virus has no cure, no adequate treatment, no guaranteed prevention, in narrower terms than the respondents have.

“I accept that the measures do not satisfy everyone and there is a great deal of criticism levelled against them. The inconvenience and discontent that the regulations have caused the applicants and others have to be weighed against the urgent objective and primary Constitutional duty to save lives,” Judge Allie concluded.

(Compiled by Carina Koen)

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