Business association Sakeliga has started contempt of court proceedings against co-operative & traditional affairs minister Nkosazana-Dlamini Zuma, alleging she has failed to meet a January 6 deadline to provide the records she relied on to declare a state of disaster and impose lockdown regulations in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The minister was at the forefront of the government’s attempts to limit the effects of Covid-19, but critics charge the regulations did more to dampen economic activity than slow the spread of the virus.
Sakeliga legal officer Tian Alberts said the public has the right to know how the government had arrived at the decisions about the lockdown regulations, many of which seemed arbitrary and had far-reaching consequences for individuals and businesses alike. The most restrictive lockdown regulations included baffling rules on which clothing items could be sold, banned the sale of hot food and rotisserie chickens in supermarkets, and forced restaurants to close by 8pm.
In November Sakeliga obtained a court order compelling the minister to provide the decision-making records relating to the lockdown regulations and her reasons for extending the state of disaster, which began on March 15 2020 and was lifted more than two years later on April 4 2022. Sakeliga took legal action after its application to the minister for the records in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act and its subsequent internal appeal was refused.
Alberts said the court order gave Dlamini-Zuma until December 22 to provide Sakeliga with the records it had requested, but she provided only a slew of documents already in the public domain thanks to a separate court case challenging the April 2020 ban on the sale of tobacco products. Sakeliga then extended her deadline to January 6.
However, by Monday the minister had yet to provide documents detailing the minutes of meetings, interdepartmental correspondence and draft regulations, said Alberts.
Sakeliga’s attorneys wrote to the state attorney, requesting an explanation by January 11 of the minister’s failure to submit these records.
“This step forms part of a thorough process that has to be followed to get a person declared guilty of contempt of court. The next step is likely to be a court application. While it is already clear that Dlamini-Zuma is attempting to thwart Sakeliga and the court, it is a procedural requirement that her contempt should be proven in a further court application. In this way the minister can be compelled either to disclose the records or to face imprisonment,” the organisation said.
Dlamini-Zuma’s spokesperson Lungi Mtshali had not responded to Business Day’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Correction: January 31 2023
Business Day previously identified the Minister’s spokesperson as Nthati Mtshali. His name is in fact Lungi Mtshali. We regret the error.
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