Political party ActionSA says it will welcome the removal of all Covid-19 regulations, saying that the continuation of these regulations has been an arbitrary infringement of the constitutional rights of South Africans, affecting freedom of trade, movement, and even the right to political assembly.
The party was responding after a leaked letter revealed that the Department of Health was considering dropping all Covid-19 regulations.
ActionSA said this was no coincidence as many parties had submitted requests to the Health Department calling for the scrapping of the regulations.
“We will welcome the victory for the return of freedoms of South Africans in whichever manner it arrives, but remain ready to continue our litigation should these regulations not be abandoned in totality.
“The regulations were designed and have been implemented by a government that has arbitrarily limited the freedoms of South Africans, casually and without regard for the Constitution, ostensibly in the name of ‘science’ ” said ActionSA’s head of strategic litigation, advocate Gillian Benson.
Benson said businesses had been forced to close, livelihoods destroyed and the ramifications of these regulations had only served to exacerbate the fragile state of the economy and the unemployment crisis which places the country in great peril.
ActionSA is set to be in the Gauteng North High Court on July 25 to argue the unconstitutionality of the regulations and to call for it to be set aside.
“We will not cease until these regulations are set aside in their entirety,” said Benson.