AfriForum and Solidarity serve court papers about the state of disaster
2 February 2022
AfriForum and Solidarity today respectively served court papers in terms of which these organisations request the courts to declare the continuation of the current state of disaster invalid.
In its court papers Solidarity contends that the ongoing extension of the state of disaster is irrational and extremely damaging for the economy as well as for social and political norms in South Africa.
“By its own relaxation of regulations, the government has actually already announced that the disaster is a thing of the past. The Disaster Management Act has always been intended to create a drastic, yet very short-term situation – for the very reason of allowing the government to move quickly,” Solidarity Chief Executive Dr Dirk Hermann said. “It is absurd that the ruling party wants to keep us in a semi-autocracy that has become almost permanent simply because they have not created any significant additional capacity at hospitals to this day.”
Solidarity explains that by lifting the state of disaster it is not implied that the virus has disappeared; it simply means that the disastrous consequences that justified an initial lockdown no longer exist.