The government needs the extraordinary powers set out in the legislation governing SA’s Covid-19 lockdown to be able to act efficiently and effectively in this state of disaster, President Cyril Ramaphosa and co-operative governance minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma argue in papers before the Constitutional Court.

The DA has asked the highest court in the land to urgently hear a case in which they argue that a section of the Disaster Management Act is unconstitutional as it breaches the doctrine of the separation of powers and usurps parliament’s legislative powers without providing for any oversight. ..