ConCourt will now have to check government’s lockdown powers

1 March 2022

Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Cilliers Brink MP

Despite a majority of public input received by the portfolio committee on Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) being in favour of the reform of government’s lockdown powers, ANC MPs today voted to block any such reform.

The ANC majority on the portfolio committee voted down a motion to consider a private members’ bill that would have amended the Disaster Management Act. They were supported by the EFF.

The proposed amendment would have achieved what the Democratic Alliance (DA) has been fighting for in the law courts: to place meaningful checks and balances on the powers of national government to declare, and make law under, a national state of disaster.

Government abuse of lockdown powers in South Africa – from the ban of the sale of ordinary consumer goods, to excessive restrictions on the freedom of movement – has caused severe economic harm to ordinary people.

We want all national disaster declarations and regulations to be tabled in Parliament, for Parliament to have the power to amend and vote down any such regulations, and for Parliament to approve any proposed extension of a national state of disaster.

These are the procedural constraints that apply to the declaration of a state of emergency, and so the absence of these constraints when a national state of disaster is declared opens a backdoor for serious power abuse by government. This risk goes beyond the Covid-19 pandemic.

Eleven of the 15 organisations that made submissions to the portfolio committee on the bill, and three of the five individuals, expressed qualified support for greater parliamentary oversight and accountability of government power under a national state of disaster.

It is unfortunate that Parliament has now missed the opportunity to bring government’s lockdown powers in line with the Constitution, and it falls to the Constitutional Court to do this. The DA’s case against section 27 of the Disaster Management Act is currently before the Court.

Issued by Cilliers Brink, DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), 1 March 2022