The fear is looming that President Cyril Ramaphosa will be forced to implement a second economically crippling set of measures to contain a South African variety of COVID that some medical experts say is more infectious, particularly to younger victims.

Britain has closed its borders to travelers from South Africa to avoid further infections by this variety.

South Africa  has recorded more than one million ifections, making it by far Africa’s worst hit nation.

The death toll exceeds 26,000 confirming this unenviable continental status.

There have been more than 42,000 new cases of COVID 19 recoded in the past three days.

Healthcare facilities, particularly in the Western Cape, are stretched to breaking point with both public and private hospitals running short of oxygen and beds.

The National Coronavirus Command Council is in emergency meeting today.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has criticized Britain locking out travelers from South Africa and disputes the assertion that the South African variety of COVID is more deadly that the British variety.

He says his government will decide on whether to slap further containment measures and restrictions on South Africans after assessing the whole country.

“We must warn South Africans that we will need to review the current restrictions and consider further measures to ensure that we curb this alarming rate of spread.

“Therefore, it will be important for us to evaluate the situation in these provinces, identify hot spots in these areas and in other provinces where they may be identified and make recommendations based on these findings and the outcomes of what has been implemented in the hot spots that have been identified so far,”

Acting general secretary of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa Cassim Lekhoathi says the second wave is very disturbing because the country is not prepared for it. 

“The strain is causing trauma and stress with our health workers.

“It is crucial that we impose stringent measures to curb the outbreak. Our nurses are severely overworked and we cannot afford to have our health system in a critical state. We must not put profit above the lives of people,” he says.

Glenda Grey, the chief executive of the South African says: “We have a very fragile health system and in December hospitals have had to deal with drinking and trauma cases.

“The objective approach to the situation is to stick to the curfew and monitor alcohol consumption. The second approach would be to stop large gatherings such as parties, churches, pubs. The rest of the world is struggling to contain the spread and we cannot expect South Africa to get it right.”

Liquor traders are worried about the possibility of stringent lockdown restrictions.

They are pleading with the government to be allowed to continue the off-premises sale of alcohol as the country navigates the second wave.

Liquor Traders Formations convener Lucky Ntimane said: “We do not think that a total ban on alcohol sales will be a solution either in the short or long term in arresting the resurgence and up-tick in the number of positive cases for Covid-19.”

He says  total shut-down of liquor sales would mean an end to the informal market and the 250, 000 direct jobs linked to the sector.

South African Breweries says it “does not believe that an outright ban / total shut down of alcohol sales is a sustainable approach, as seen with the last two bans. The unintended consequences of such actions are dire, from job losses, tax losses, illicit trading and looting of alcohol stores.”

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by Jean-Jacques Cornish

South Africa’s courts have been a constant in the country’s hazardous path through wicked colonization, cruel apartheid and the vagaries of democracy.

So it is both inevitable and desirable that they should be called upon to rule on events in the biggest crisis the country has faced since the Second World War 75 years ago.

Government has assumed unprecedented powers to deal with the COVID 19 pandemic.

These have had an immediate impact on the rights of South Africans guaranteed in their Constitution that is justifiably the envy of most of the world.

They will also have an unfathomable long term impact on the socio-economic life of South Africa that is euphemistically referred to as challenging.

The first legal foray is being launched by British American Tobacco South Africa and the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association.

They argue that the National Coronavirus Command Council has taken measures that fly in the face of individuals right  to choose and are unnecessarily injurious to the exchequer. They further argue that the the NCCC is suffocating the country’s socio economic prospects.

Government counters that the prevention of tobacco and alcohol sales during the lockdown are justified on purely health grounds.

They say these steps have been emulated by Mexico Hong Kong and Greenland.

The second matter to come before the courts is challenging the  constitutional mandate  and the power of NCCC.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is being asked to explain the source of the power he has wielded delegating executive functions to a body that includes some but not all of his Cabinet.

To this, government will cite Constitutional Court President Arthur Chaskalson 1995 ruling outlawing capital punishment.

Judge Chaskalson said that the rights to life and dignity are the most important of them all. In make any ruling on human rights, these have to be placed above all else.

Ramaphosa argues that regulations put in place to combat COVID 19 are founded on government’s commitment to life and dignity.

In extreme circumstances, he holds, it is necessary to put a temporary restriction on other rights like the freedom of choice, movement and association.

Education is at the root of the third legal challenge.

The Tebelia Institute for Leadership, Education, Governance and Training 

and the Africa Institute on Human Rights and Constitutional Litigation are challenging the opening of schools.

They say government cannot keep parents at home to prevent the spread of COVID 19 while sending innocent children to school to save the academic year.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga  says, in effect, it is still up in the air.

She acknowledges that her department has indicated children could be returning to school as early as this week.

However, she says it is only the “education sector” not necessarily the schools themselves that  have opened up today.

As Tom Wolfe said in Bonfire of the Vanities, we are truly now in the web of the law.

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