DA vows to continue challenging Disaster Management Act

DA vows to continue challenging Disaster Management Act

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has vowed to continue challenging aspects of the Disaster Management Act.

John Steenhuisen on smart lockdown 2
Screenshot

The party has been denied direct access by the Constitutional Court, but interim leader John Steenhuisen says this will not deter the party's efforts to fix what it believes to be flaws in the act.

 

"This will delay our action, but it most certainly will not deter us. It is our view that, in its current guise, the Disaster Management Act, under which a state of disaster was declared in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, does not pass constitutional muster.

 

"The reason for this is that it has no provision for parliamentary oversight, and this means that the legislative and executive functions of the state have effectively been merged. Government’s National Coronavirus Command Council now fulfils both these roles.”

 

Steenhuisen says the party will now make its way through the court system in an attempt to remedy the flaws in the act.

 

Listen to Steenhuisen below: 

Show's Stories