Explain two human rights violations which result from the eviction of people during the lockdown.
Answers
Explanation:
South Africa’s first case of COVID-19 was confirmed on March 5th, 2020. Ten days later, on March 15th, 2020, the government utilized the Disaster Management Act (2002) to declare a State of National Disaster. Under this Act, the government set up a National Command Council (NCC) made up of Cabinet Ministers and restricted certain rights necessary to prevent SARS-Cov-2 transmission and “flatten the curve.”
A national lockdown started on March 27th. It was relaxed slightly (to level 4) on May 1st, and was further relaxed (to level 3) on June 1st. The lockdown severely restricted freedom of movement, closed all but essential companies and schools, banned the sale of alcohol and tobacco, and introduced a night-time curfew between 8pm and 5am. By May 22nd, the Minister of Police reported that 230,000 people had been arrested for violating lock-down regulations.
The most affected constitutionally recognized rights are freedom of movement, assembly, and trade. However, on paper at least, care has been taken to ensure that political rights and rights to freedom of expression and association are not limited, and the President has couched the country’s response in terms of the Constitution, particularly the rights to life, dignity and access to health care services. He has also frequently referred to the right to equality and promised that in the post COVID-19 period South Africa will do much more to tackle the inequalities that have been exposed by the coronavirus.
The Disaster Management Act empowers the President to appoint a Cabinet Minister (in this case the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs) to issue special regulations, which have been released on an almost weekly basis.
Civil society lawyers and activists have analyzed these regulations in an on-line (and regularly updated) guide to the law that identifies the numerous human rights risks and possibilities for abuse created by the regulations. In addition, civil society organizations set up a legal support hotline where violations can be reported, and developed a wide range of human rights resources.
Though many of the ordinary functions of the Courts were suspended from March 27th onward, a number of matters challenging the lawfulness of regulations and their implementation have been brought to courts, sometimes successfully. Political parties and social justice organizations have challenged their rationality and the lawfulness of the NCC.
People have also questioned the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to affected communities. There have been a significant number of cases reported of police and army brutality, including at least 11 deaths. A sucessful legal challenge was brought concerning the murder of Collins Khosa by members of the SANDF in the township of Alexandra in Johannesburg. On May 15th 2020, in a detailed and far-reaching judgment, the Court made it clear that members of the security forces must respect and protect rights to dignity and life, not commit torture, and only resort to minimum force to enforce the law. The SANDF was instructed to publicize the Court’s order, investigate the death properly, warn its members against criminality, and develop a code of conduct “in giving effect to the state of disaster.”
The anti-repression working group of the C-19 People’s Coalition Civil — an alliance of over 300 organizations — and the SA Human Rights Commission have been involved in monitoring cases of police and army brutality. There have also been a number of illegal evictions of people occupying municipal land, despite a legal prohibition on evictions during lockdown. In one instance a court application halted evictions in a community outside Cape Town.
President Ramaphosa has welcomed the use of courts to challenge unlawful conduct.
- Human right to information
- Human right to participation and self-expression.