The Disaster Management Act was abused for months during 2020 and 2021 to enforce draconian police-state conditions on the public, with arbitrary measures such as banning the sales of alcohol and hot chicken. Lockdowns imposed by the central government caused enormous damage to business environments, economies and the social order. This should not happen again, and litigation even following the state of disaster can establish a legal precedent to prevent a repetition.

Sakeliga therefore is proceeding with a court application in the Pretoria High Court to prevent the Disaster Management Act from being abused in the future to enforce draconian measures by proclaiming regulations. In addition, Sakeliga specifically wants to avoid the repeated extension of a state of disaster without objectively there being a disaster. Among other things, Sakeliga also requests that the National Disaster Management Centre’s failure for several months to determine whether Covid-19 meets the definition of a “disaster”, be declared unlawful and unconstitutional and that a “national state of disaster” may not be extended in the absence of a classification by the National Disaster Management Centre of a situation as an objective “disaster” and “national disaster”.