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TimesLive reports that trade union Solidarity on Wednesday served court papers seeking the annulment of the Covid-19 state of disaster, saying SA needed to return to a functioning democracy.
The union lodged its papers at the High Court in Pretoria against co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the national coronavirus command council and Dr Mmaphaka Tau of the national disaster management centre. Solidarity contends that the ongoing extension of the state of disaster is irrational and damaging for the economy and social and political norms in SA. “By its own relaxation of regulations, the government has already announced that the disaster is a thing of the past. The Disaster Management Act is intended to create a drastic, yet short-term situation to allow the government to move quickly. It is absurd that the governing party wants to keep us in a semi-autocracy,” Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann stated. It is Solidarity’s argument that lifting the state of disaster does not imply the virus has disappeared, but rather that the events that justified an initial lockdown no longer exist. “The point is that Covid-19 has become manageable without such drastic measures. All indications point to the disease being endemic. The virus will be with us for a long time, but the disaster is over. To cling stubbornly to the state of disaster will be disastrous in itself,” Hermann pointed out.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard at BusinessLive
- Read Solidarity’s press statement in the above regard at Solidarity News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page