Dlamini-Zuma comes to rescue Patel from his legal nightmare on cooked food
20 April 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes that the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, Nkosasa Dlamini-Zuma has swooped in at the last minute to rescue Trade, Industry and Competition Minister, Ebrahim Patel from a legal challenge which we were set to announce at 2pm today.
Dlamini-Zuma has hurriedly amended the lockdown regulations to explicitly ban the sale of cooked foods in an attempt to put a lid on the public humiliation Minister Patel was subjected to after he stated on the 16th of April that "as the law stands", the sale of cooked food was banned. This was clearly unlawful and Patel had to rely on his Cabinet colleague to cure his legal nightmare.
The DA was set to approach the North Gauteng High Court and lodge urgent papers to have Patel’s comments declared unlawful as well as seek a personal costs order against him.
Todays amendment now makes what was illegal, legal and is short sighted and mean spirited, especially for frontline health care workers, members of the security services, essential service workers and transport workers like truck drivers who rely on cooked food due to the work they are doing.