The civil rights organisation AfriForum today in a letter to the Minister of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, demanded that the new regulations for isolation that seeks to force people into quarantine camps be scrapped.

According to these new regulations, published in the Government Gazette, no person who has been tested positive for COVID-19 through a laboratory test may refuse to be admitted to a health facility for isolation or treatment. This means that no one will be allowed to isolate at home.

According to AfriForum it is very strange that the Minister wants to implement such a regulation again seeing that the court has already ruled against the Minister in the past in a similar case.

AfriForum won in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria in June 2020 when Judge J. W. Louw granted the organisation’s urgent application to have the Minister’s quarantine regulations (which at the time also prohibited self-isolation) declared invalid. These regulations, which according to AfriForum are irrational and draconian, were aimed at placing those who test positive for COVID-19 under compulsory state quarantine.

The Minister conceded that AfriForum’s application was made an order of the court stipulating that the regulations should be read in such a way that persons who can effectively self-isolate should be allowed to do so.

“It is inexplicable why the minister would now once again want to introduce such a draconian measure, seeing that the court has already ruled that people who can safely self-isolate at home may do so. If the Minister fails to make these amendments, we will certainly fight them again in court,” says Jacques Broodryk, AfriForum’s Campaign Manager.

AfriForum gave the Minister until Friday to amend the regulation.