Mogoeng slams government’s handling of Covid-19, calls NCCC ‘unconstitutional’

South Africa’s recently retired chief justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng, has severely criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mogoeng says there has been a lack of accountability to citizens on the continued extension of the State of Disaster, which was enacted in March last year at the onset of the pandemic.

Delivering his keynote address on Thursday at the virtual conference of the Forum of Institutions Supporting Democracy (FISD), Mogoeng raised concerns about government’s reliance on the Disaster Management Act and the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) to manage the coronavirus.

He said Parliament, as the legislative arm of the state, should be holding the executive accountable for the decisions it takes regarding lockdowns and vaccines, and not a structure like the NCCC.

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Mogoeng said due to the absence of public participation and accountability in government’s decision-making processes, citizens were being denied their fundamental human rights as enshrined in the Constitution.

“Are the people governing under the Constitution during the Covid-19 era or is the executive and the command council governing in terms of the Disaster Management Act? Do we have a forum for citizens to consider issues relating to Covid-19 openly? Is the National Assembly scrutinising Covid-19 related issues in public?” he asked.

NCCC ‘unconstitutional’

Mogoeng, who is known for his polarising views, said the NCCC was an unconstitutional body and didn’t have any statutory powers.

“Why have we allowed a structure that is neither constitutional nor statutory – a command council and a minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs and the president – to interfere with our entrenched fundamental rights in this manner, and to extend the lockdown as easily as they do?

“And in circumstances where more accountability would have been expedient if the National Assembly was allowed to enjoy its constitutional rights.

“Why are we not insisting, as we should as citizens, for accountability and openness by elected representatives of the people, and on public debate on Covid-19 related issues in the National Assembly?”

Citizens ‘gripped by fear and cowardice’

Mogoeng said South Africans were being “gripped by fear and cowardice” because dissenting opinions on how to manage the pandemic were not being allowed in public.

“Presumably, no South African knew in advance that the Covid-19 plague would last longer than it has. That aside and considering the limitations of our fundamental rights, one can only wonder if there was any reason why the Covid-19 situation was not managed in terms of the Constitution that is self-evidently most protective of our fundamental rights. After all, Covid-19 does seem to fall within the ambit of natural disasters in section 37 (1) of the Constitution.”

Mogoeng has previously made no secret of his aversion to Covid-19 vaccines.

He said dictator tendencies were starting to emerge to silence people who have alternative viewpoints about how to deal with Covid-19, with people being told to get jabbed with “experimental vaccines”.

He said this posed a danger to citizens’ rights to freedom of expression because people with alternative views were being smeared and demonised.

“What are citizens being allowed to know [regarding] the fundamentals of this Covid-19 situation and the budgetary expenditure issues around it?

“Is there corruption being perpetrated during this epidemic? Are pointed questions being asked persistently and the necessary investigations being embarked upon by Parliament, the media, analysts or academia, the public and Chapter Nine Institutions or other human rights driven institutions, or have we all been beaten into submission or into a line defined by the unexplained narrative of being routinely demonised, investigated or lied about?

“Are we afraid of the ever-ready and shameless propaganda or smear campaign machinery? Has anybody questioned why clips or articles questioning the fundamentals of Covid-19 and its preferred treatment are routinely been taken off media platforms? Or those behind the unwanted views are being condemned by predictable instruments of smear and demonisation?”

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