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LOCKDOWN REGULATIONS

Public interest body Sakeliga tries to have Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma prosecuted for contempt of court

Public interest body Sakeliga tries to have Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma prosecuted for contempt of court
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. (Photo: Flickr / GCIS)

Public interest organisation Sakeliga has instructed its legal team to prepare an application for contempt of court against Cogta Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma for failing to provide it with documentation relating to the government’s Covid-19 response.

Public interest organisation Sakeliga has instructed its lawyers to draw up an application to have the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, jailed for contempt of court.

The organisation said last week that she had refused to comply with a court order to provide it with documentation relating to the government’s Covid-19 response and instead sent them thousands of pages of documents that were already in the public domain.

Sakeliga is taking Dlamini Zuma to court in her capacity as minister and as political head of the department that managed South Africa’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic after President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a State of Disaster in March 2020.

Sakeliga instituted legal action against her after she refused it access to documentation explaining lockdown regulations and decisions to keep the State of Disaster in place. Sakeliga has indicated that it will legally challenge the decision to declare a State of Disaster.

Dlamini Zuma had, in a lawyer’s letter, indicated her opposition to making the documents public, saying they were covered by privilege that attaches to the Cabinet. Her lawyers also filed court papers making technical objections to the court case. But she never filed opposing papers.

As a result, the Pretoria High Court ordered that Dlamini Zuma hand over the documents Sakeliga requested.

Dlamini Zuma was to hand over the documents by the start of December. This deadline was extended to 6 January, but last week the organisation’s CEO, Piet le Roux, said they had not received a satisfactory response from her.

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The documents to which Sakeliga seeks access are:

  • Records and documents relied on by Dlamini Zuma when she made decisions about Covid-19 regulations, including those on which decisions to extend the State of Disaster were based;
  • Reasons for the regulations; and
  • Deliberations, communications, and memorandums.

Le Roux said Sakeliga had instructed its attorneys to proceed with a contempt of court application.

“While [it is] obvious that Dlamini Zuma is frustrating Sakeliga and the court, it is a legal requirement that we prove her contempt with a particular court application. It is necessary to force her to either reveal the records or face jail time.”

He said they had received “thousands of pages that were generally already in the public domain, omitting crucial documents such as meeting minutes, interdepartmental correspondence, draft regulations and changes”.

Le Roux said it would take them a few weeks to draw up their court papers and he hoped that Dlamini Zuma would use this opportunity to comply with the court order.

“In the current matter, Dlamini Zuma is the focus of our application because she was legally responsible for the decisions and is, therefore, the proper address for an information request and subsequent court order.”

He said the organisation was committed to seeing the application through to the end. DM/MC

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Comments - Please in order to comment.

  • Joe Soap says:

    Yet another politician who cannot answer simple questions. Time to make all politicians and civil servants aware that they are paid by South African taxpayers to provide them with services. They are not leaders or some sort of elite that demands privilege. In fact by showing crime pays the ANC is now a crime syndicate with most members being the exact opposite of elite leaders. As far as our corrupt police service, that is a book for another day.

  • Jeremy Stephenson says:

    This action is a reminder of the vital role that civil activist organisations like Sakeliga, OUTA and others play in forcing accountability upon our government.

    I’m not associated with any of these organisations in any way, but they are the only weapons we have, and anyone who wants a future should be vigorously supporting them.

  • Ian Gwilt says:

    Records and reasons, there probably aren’t any along with Mins and recommendations.
    She made it up as she went along, “Ban Smokes, Ban Beers, cant sell T shirts in winter” Ahh I feel better now,

  • Geoff Woodruff says:

    She clearly has something to hide, the real reason for the cigarette ban perhaps? Her friend Adriano Mazzotti must have scored big on the black market.

  • Paul Caiger says:

    The most destructive member of the communist ANC and one who has brought untold suffering and damage to this country. She should be tried for crimes against humanity and sentenced accordingly. She is the face of evil.

  • Nos Feratu says:

    Reminds me of an event which apparently too place in Cyprus. The British were unable to pin anything on one of the ringleaders of the troubles. Eventually they caught him jumping a stop street. He was sentenced to 10 years.

  • Hermann Funk says:

    The arrogance of these members of cabinet knows no bounds. Dlamini-Zuma has been incompetent in every job she was entrusted with. Useless as most of her colleagues.

  • Steve Stevens says:

    I doubt there were any records kept in the first place. She was making it up as she went along. Probably furiously typing out some nonsense as we speak, chain-smoking zols as she goes.

  • Carsten Rasch says:

    And if Ramaphosa replaces her?

  • Ou Soutie says:

    Maybe she’s learned a lesson from her ex to duck and dive until we force the courts to do something. Stalingrad here we go again…!

  • Beyond Fedup says:

    This is the same dour, sour and incompetent buffoon who declared and rubber-stamped the 1st stolen election by Mugabe as free and fair. This was when this devious individual was foreign minister under the Mbeki’s government. The rest is history and the pain, suffering, misplacement, grinding poverty, betrayal and failed state continues to this very day. The impunity, unaccountability and arrogance knows no bounds. And the fact that she was prepared to front the putrid Zuma REThieves faction says it all about her.

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