On Thursday both the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Freedom Front Plus (FF+) announced that they will be challenging the National Disaster Management Act in the High Court.
The DA said that on Thursday afternoon, their lawyers filed to challenge the night curfew, the restrictions on e-commerce and the limited 3-hour exercise window as they feel there is no justification for it and these decisions need to be retracted.
Furthermore, they will be challenging the constitutionality of the National Disaster Management Act and feel that if the Act does not meet the requirements, all decisions taken by the National Command Council is invalid.
“The threat posed by this lockdown crisis is so much greater than the threat of the virus, that we have no choice but to end the hard lockdown now and start our economy up,” the DA says.
The DA has also started a crowdfunding platform and appealed to the public to donate money towards the legal fees of their case.
In a separate case, the FF+ will ask the Court to find that the government is abusing the National Disaster Management Act, indicating that the announcement of the state of disaster and the regulations implemented are unconstitutional.
“The lockdown cannot be extended in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus from reaching its peak in certain areas. It is bound to happen and with the winter months at our door, 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 a great loss of lives, severe poverty and suffering,” the FF+ said in their statement.
The FF+ says the government needs to provide reasoning for the regulations implemented and be transparent about the data used as the basis for declaring a national disaster.
