Pressure mounts to lift state of disaster

• National Liquor Traders Council adds its voice to call on government

As President Cyril Ramaphosa prepares to deliver his state of the nation address on Thursday, the National Liquor Traders Council has told him it expects him to consider scrapping the national state of disaster and transferring the responsibility of dealing with the pandemic to the department of health.

As President Cyril Ramaphosa prepares to deliver his state of the nation address on Thursday, the National Liquor Traders Council has told him it expects him to consider scrapping the national state of disaster.

“As far as the state of the nation address is concerned, we expect the removal of the state of disaster, the transfer of the responsibility of dealing with the pandemic to the department of health and allowing the parliamentary process to resume to hold the executive to account on how they are dealing with Covid-19,” National Liquor Traders Council spokesperson Lucky Ntimane said on Sunday.

The organisation has joined the growing call for the government to lift the state of disaster.

FIFTH WAVE

On Friday, health minister Joe Phaahla warned of the possibility of a fifth Covid-19 wave as winter looms.

Phaahla told the nation that after a steady decline in infections, there was now a plateau, which was likely to have been caused by the opening of schools and movement of people after the festive season.

Ntimane said tavern owners have suffered under the national state of disaster and Ramaphosa should consider extending support and relief packages to registered liquor traders.

“The future of SA lies in entrepreneurship, and the support for small, blackowned businesses who support multitudes of jobs is extremely important,” he said.

The organisation is also calling for universal liquor laws instead of provinces having their own liquor acts.

“We would like a 0% increase on excise duty levied on alcohol products for the current fiscal year as well as developing of the country’s alcohol harmreduction strategy to deal with alcohol abuse and its associated harm,” Ntimane said.

The organisation would like to see the abolition of regulations that prevent government lending agencies assisting liquor traders with funding, he said.

Sakeliga, a lobby group largely representing the interests of Afrikaans business owners, has become the latest organisation to launch a legal challenge against SA’s state of disaster, saying there is clear evidence it is being maintained unconstitutionally.

Sakeliga said legislation makes it clear that a national state of disaster may only be declared by the minister of co-operative governance & traditional affairs based on an existing classification of a national disaster by the National Disaster Management Centre, the entity tasked with co-ordinating the response to catastrophes.

“Not only should this classification be done independently, but also reassessed continuously. Only upon, and for as long as, the head of the National Disaster Management Centre has classified an event as a disaster may the minister of cooperative governance & traditional affairs declare and maintain a national state of disaster,” said Sakeliga CEO Piet le Roux.

REASSESSMENT

The National Disaster Management Centre has not conducted a reassessment independently and continuously as required by law, Le Roux said.

SA has been under a state of disaster since March 2020 at the start of the global pandemic. The status has been renewed monthly, and the latest iteration is due to expire on February 15, which could see the end of existing restrictions such as the legal requirement to wear face coverings in public spaces.

Critics argue that a perpetual state of disaster goes against the principles of the constitutional democracy.

Trade union Solidarity and civil rights group AfriForum also recently announced that they would launch court action to challenge the state of disaster. They argue that the pandemic is now entering an endemic phase and that the state of disaster is no longer necessary.

Citing a letter by the head of the National Disaster Management Centre, Mmaphaka Tau, addressed to Sakeliga’s attorneys, Le Roux suggested that the cabinet is illegally extending the state of disaster without the centre reassessing its original classification as required by law.

Sakeliga wrote to Tau demanding that he reassess and rescind his classification of Covid-19 as a “national disaster” by January 28.

In his response, Tau explained that he classified the Covid-19 pandemic as a national disaster on March 15 2020.

Subsequent to the cabinet resolution on the same day, cooperative governance & traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma declared a national state of disaster in terms of the Disaster Management Act.

“Given this, the ongoing effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the cabinet decision that the

national state of disaster remains in place at least until 15 February 2022, I contend that the reclassification of the event to that of a provincial or local disaster is neither reasonable or rational.

“Similarly, the revocation of the classification cannot be reasonably or rationally justified outside the implementation of sustainable regulatory measures needed for the control of Covid19 beyond the national state of disaster that is based on existing legislation administered by the respective ministries.”

Le Roux said that Tau was in effect admitting to deferring to the cabinet and the minister for deciding whether to maintain or reassess his original classification, rather than doing so independently based on objective criteria.

Tau’s logic is “circular, as he states that he will not reassess the disaster classification due to a cabinet decision to extend the national state of disaster. Yet, cabinet, through the minister, must rely on the National Disaster Management Centre’s classification before they may extend the national state of disaster in the first place.

“It is cabinet that must defer to the National Disaster Management Centre, not the National Disaster Management Centre to cabinet,” Le Roux said.

TWO WAYS

He said this was evidence of unconstitutionality in at least one of two ways.

“Either it amounts to unconstitutional dereliction of duty on the part of Tau, or to unconstitutionality of the Disaster Management Act itself.

“In both cases, the unconstitutionality lies in failings to offer independent oversight of the executive and thereby failing to protect constitutional rights.

Tau’s letter “shows that the National Disaster Management Centre is not acting as an objective check on executive power, considers itself to be an agent of the executive, has no process in place to continuously reassess its two-years-old classification of a ‘national disaster’, and is in breach either of the act and/or the constitution”.

Le Roux said Sakeliga has instructed its legal team to approach the high court for | the setting aside of the classification of Covid-19 as a national disaster.

NATIONAL LIQUOR TRADERS COUNCIL SAYS TAVERN OWNERS HAVE SUFFERED UNDER THE NATIONAL STATE OF DISASTER

CRITICS ARGUE THAT A PERPETUAL STATE OF DISASTER GOES AGAINST THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY