Litigation by the Helen Suzman Foundation regarding responsibility for the management of the Covid-19 crisis
22 May 2020
The FW de Klerk foundation welcomes the Helen Suzman Foundation’s (HSF) application, direct to the Constitutional Court, to declare that Parliament, the President and the Cabinet have failed to fulfill their obligations under the Constitution to prepare and adopt legislation to regulate the state’s response to the threat posed by COVID19.
The HSF has asked the Court to direct the Cabinet and Parliament to prepare and adopt such legislation – and to declare that the powers that the Minister of Cooperative Governance has assumed under the Disaster Management Act to manage the crisis will be terminated as soon as the requested legislation has been adopted.
The HSF has made it clear that it is not questioning the merits or otherwise of the regulations that have been promulgated to deal with the very difficult and complex threat posed by COVID19 – but rather the manner in which the state –“or parts of the state” have failed to respond to the crisis. Instead, the HSF believes that “it is now critical that the proper location of that power (to deal with COVID19) be restored, not only in the present crisis… but for the long-term importance of our constitutional project.”
The HSF believes that the Disaster Management Act was not the correct instrument for the management of the COVID19 crisis. Instead, the President, the Cabinet and Parliament should have adopted legislation specifically designed to deal with the pandemic.