Legal action against government to lift state of disaster
19 January 2022
Solidarity and the Solidarity Support Centre for Schools (SCS) today issued a warning to the Minister of Cooperative Governance to lift the state of disaster. This comes after the state of disaster was extended by yet another month on 15 January.
According to Solidarity, there are no rational grounds to further extend the declared state of disaster. Solidarity is also of the opinion that the crippling consequences the state of disaster has on the economy and on education can no longer be tolerated.
“Economic activity in various sectors, such as tourism, is still being restricted by the Disaster Management Act. This means that these businesses cannot be fully operational and therefore cannot generate sufficient income to be able to survive or to recover. Thousands of employees and business owners are suffering as a result. People want to recover economically and rebuild their businesses, but simply cannot do so because they are still being limited by this irrational legislation,” says Dr Dirk Hermann, Solidarity chief executive.
Hermann contends that it was never the purpose of the Disaster Management Act to grant total freedom of power to the minister in question for an unprecedented period, thus exposing citizens to the power abuses of the minister and her Command Council. Hermann is of the opinion that the Disaster Management Act is currently restricting citizens’ basic freedoms and their economic and learning activities rather than offering protection against the pandemic.
The SCS is also particularly concerned about the impact of the ongoing state of disaster on schools and learners. According to the SCS, the impact of Covid-19 on schools should be managed by each school itself rather than by the government or the Department of Basic Education (DBE) attempting to do so from a central point.
“The minister should relinquish her autocratic control over schools and should rather reinstate the schools’ own powers. Each school understands the specific needs of its community as well as the specific challenges it faces. The schools are competent and fully capable of managing the risks and can act in the best interests of their learners to catch up with backlogs and see to it that learners are subject to as little as possible further disruption,” says Melanie Buys, the SCS’s head of development.
According to Hermann, the country is now being held hostage in a state of disaster for something that can no longer be considered a disaster. Although the initial extent of and uncertainty about the virus may have justified a state of disaster at the time this is not the case anymore, and it needs to be lifted.
“We are being exposed to the power abuses of one minister without her being held accountable in any way for the implementation of regulations and restrictions she is imposing on people. People are becoming impoverished because they cannot work as they should, and children do not have adequate opportunity to learn. If the minister does not respond to our warning on or before 28 January we will go to court. Minister Dlamini-Zuma’s reign of terror must come to an end now,” Hermann concluded.
The letter can be read here.
Issued by Connie Mulder, Head: Solidarity Research Institute, 19 January 2022
