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.