A South African High Court has declared the government's lockdown regulations for Level 4 and 3 unconstitutional and therefore invalid.Assess the implications that this judgement could hold for the Government
Answers
A South African High Court has declared the government's lockdown regulations unconstitutional and, therefore, invalid, driving a coach and horses through its COVID-19 strategy. Justice Norman Davis found that both the level 3 and level 4 regulations are “irrational”
The alert level 3 and alert level 4 lockdown regulations have been declared invalid and unconstitutional by the Gauteng High Court.
The Ministry in the Presidency said in a media statement it has noted the ruling delivered by the High Court on 2 June 2020.
The Gauteng High Court suspended the declaration of invalidity of the regulations for 14 days, meaning that the level 3 regulations remain in effect for now.
The court has directed the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), in consultation with other ministers, to amend, review, and republish the regulations.
The judge found that “little or in fact no regard was given to the extent of the impact of individual regulations on the constitutional rights of people and whether the extent of the limitation of their rights was justifiable or not”.