Court Ruling on Legality of Level 3 & 4 Lockdown Regulations

Below is the judgment handed down by the Pretoria High Court (the “Court”) on 3rd June 2020, declaring the Lockdown Alert Level 3, as read with the Lockdown Alert Level 4 Regulations, (the “Regulations”) unconstitutional and invalid. The Presidency media statement also appears below, for your information.

In summary, the Court declared the Regulations unconstitutional and invalid for the following reasons – 

1. they are not rationally connected to the objectives of slowing the rate of infection or limiting the spread of COVID-19; and
2. insofar as they do not satisfy the rationality test, their encroachment on, and limitation of, the rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights are not justifiable in an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom.

The declaration of invalidity has been suspended for a period of 14 business days (i.e. until 22 June 2020), or such longer time as the Court may allow, to enable the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, in consultation with the relevant Ministers, to review, amend and re-publish the Regulations with due consideration to the limitation each regulation has on the rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.

During this period of suspension, the Lockdown Alert Level 3 Regulations, as read with the Lockdown Alert Level 4 Regulations, will continue to apply.

Cabinet will be studying the judgment and will communicate further once the judgment has been fully considered.

Members with queries in this regard are hereby requested to forward them to Nozizwe Ndhlovu ([email protected] )