SEDIBENG. The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) has called for an end to the current lockdown regulations and said that it will approach the High Court with an urgent application to challenge the validity of the National Disaster Management Act and to request the Court to find that the government is abusing the Act.
The party said, in a statement, that this will mean that the announced state of disaster and the associated regulations are unconstitutional.
“The balance of public interest between curbing the spread of the virus and unlocking the economy to prevent the loss of livelihoods and subsequently lives should come into play. At present, it is not taken into account with the draconian regulations imposed on the country.”
FF Plus further said that the lockdown cannot be extended in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus from reaching its peak in certain areas, that it is bound to happen with the winter months at our door, and that unlocking the country cannot be postponed any further.
“The FF Plus recognises that the virus poses a real threat to many human lives, but if a country’s economy comes to a complete standstill, it will without a doubt also result in great loss of lives, severe poverty and suffering.”
Meanwhile the Democratic Alliance (DA) has also announced that it will file papers in the High Court challenging the rationality of three separate lockdown-related decisions: the night curfew, the restrictions on e-commerce and the limited 3-hour window for exercise.
“The DA will be asking the court to apply the same oversight provisions to the State of Disaster as to the State of Emergency. Without this oversight, petty, power-drunk, would-be authoritarians have free reign to take irrational decisions that destroy lives. We are asking South Africans to assist us in this fight to protect our democratic freedoms. We have to do this, and we have to do this now. South Africa cannot afford another two weeks of hard lockdown. It is destroying thousands of businesses and millions of jobs and lives,” the DA said.
