Solidarity will demand penalty costs if health regulations are not withdrawn 

20 June 2022

Solidarity sent a letter to Dr Joe Phaala, the Minister of Health, demanding that the controversial health regulations be withdrawn. Should the Minister not withdraw the regulations, Solidarity will request a punitive costs order. 

Solidarity's application requesting that the regulations be declared invalid will be argued in court on 25 - 27 July. Solidarity demands that the regulations be withdrawn before that date. The application of organisations such as AfriForum will be heard on the same day.

Solidarity’s demand came after the Minister’s record in the case had been filed. According to Solidarity, the government’s own record confirms that that the regulations are unlawful. 

According to Solidarity Chief Executive Dr Dirk Hermann, the regulations are clearly substantively and procedurally unlawful. Defending the controversial regulations in court is going to waste taxpayers' money and the court’s time.

According to Solidarity’s letter, rationality is the criterion against which the regulations should be measured. The regulations do not pass the test for rationality. This is so obvious that it is unnecessary for a judge to make this ruling. 

According to Solidarity, the Minister ignored his own advisory committee. The committee indicated that wearing masks outdoors could not be scientifically justified, and that the unconditional wearing of masks indoors would also not pass the legal test. 

“These regulations are not about masks, but about power and exerting control. Through these regulations the Minister wants to convert the temporary Covid-19 control measures into permanent control measures,” Hermann said.

According to the Ministerial Advisory Committee, the measures introduced were insufficient to prevent the spread of the virus, but these same measures are now being promulgated into new regulations.

The substantive immunity of the population through vaccinations and infections is also not taken into account in the regulations. It seems as if the old regulations had merely been copied and pasted without any consideration of new circumstances. The Minister simply ignored the recommendations of the Ministerial Advisory Committee.
 
Government records also show that comments that had been submitted were not properly taken into consideration. Thousands of comments had not even been processed when the regulations were published. The Minister also ignored the mandatory comment period of three months, and the Minister also did not consult with the National Health Authority as required. 

Click here to view Solidarity’s letter to the Minister.

Click here to view Solidarity’s supplementary affidavit on the government's record.

Issued by Anton van der Bijl, Head: Legal matters, 20 June 2022