AfriForum prepares for legal action against COVID-19 quarantine camps
21 April 2020
The civil rights organisation AfriForum instructed its legal team to start preparing for a legal challenge against certain regulations published by the South African government. The regulations complained of empower the state to prosecute anyone who tested positive for COVID-19 but refuses to be taken to a government-run quarantine camp for COVID-19 patients.
It also empowers the state to forcibly quarantine people in government camps, even in cases where these people have the means to self-isolate and intend to do so. An attorney’s letter to this effect was sent today to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the Minister of Cooperative Government. In its letter, AfriForum places the Minister on terms and requests a respond within 48 hours. This actions follows on the announcement by Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, MEC for Health in KwaZulu-Natal, that the provincial government had resolved to discard the policy of self-isolation for people who test positive for COVID-19.
Simelane-Zulu said anyone who test positive for COVID-19 from Sunday onwards would be kept and monitored at state-identified quarantine sites. Sihle Zikalala, the KZN Premier, added that newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients would be “taken” to government-approved isolation sites for treatment.
“The issue with self-isolation – we are saying it is coming to an end,” the Premier said. “Once we have discovered that you have tested [positive for COVID-19], we take you, and that is the end. Up and until you recover, we [will then] release you back into the community,” Zikalala said at a media briefing. These policy decisions and announcements are made within the framework of the national regulations issued by die Minister of Cooperative Government in terms of government measures to be taken to limit the spread of COVID-19.