DA heads to court over Disaster Management Act
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is at the courts again today, this time, the party is challenging the constitutionality of the Disaster Management Act.
Interim leader, John Steenhuisen said their lawyers are filing papers at the High Court in Pretoria on Friday.
Steenhuisen said they will be asking the court is to apply the same oversight provisions to the State of Disaster as to the State of Emergency.
"Unless the Act meets constitutional muster, the decisions taken by the National Command Council under this Act are not valid.
"This is an extremely important case because it speaks to one of the most crucial principles in our democracy – the separation of powers," he said.
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He added: "We have an Executive branch of government – Cabinet – and a separate Legislative branch – Parliament – for a very good reason.
"But right now, because of this lack of oversight, the Executive is effectively doing the job of writing our laws and regulations as they please, bypassing all the debate and possible opposition that would've happened in Parliament."
On Thursday, the DA filed papers in the High Court challenging the rationality of the night curfew under the lockdown, the ban on e-commerce and the restriction of exercise hours.