![]() Nobody disputed that there would be some necessary limitations. ![]() And by impacting profoundly on socio-economic rights, they have also impacted on fundamental rights, such as people’s rights to dignity and rights to autonomy. But records kept by our Medical Research Council of all deaths, and what they describe as “ excess deaths above the annual average,” are above 150,000.Īnd secondly, it’s clear that the violations of rights went much further than just the limitations on rights to movement and so on, that the measures taken have impacted profoundly negatively on constitutionally enshrined socio-economic rights, to basic education, access to health care services, sufficient food, etc. Officially we have recorded 1.5 million SARS-CoV-2 infections and 53,000 COVID-related deaths. Although it’s not described as such, I believe it’s one of the biggest and one of the worst in the world. In our country, as some of us predicted, we have a very large epidemic. The drastic limitations on rights have not contained COVID-19. One is that the means did not achieve the public health ends. The drastic limitations on rights have not contained COVID-19.Īnd looking back and trying to evaluate whether the response was a constitutional response, we have to take into account I think two factors. The means did not achieve the public health ends. Now, we’ve just passed the first anniversary on the 5th of March of our first COVID case, it’s one year since the beginning of the lockdown. In those days, I think the jury was out as to whether the response of the South African government was proportionate and justifiable. In the early days, the few attempts to challenge the limitations legally, through court cases, were not successful, because it was believed that government was acting within the bounds of the Constitution. And so people knew that their rights were being limited, but they accepted those limitations. The lockdown was considered proportionate. But also there was a willingness of people to allow limitations on their rights, in the interest of public health and the greater good. In those early months, there was a lot we still didn’t know about the infectiousness and modes of transmission of COVID-19. It imposed very severe restrictions on movement, the consumption and sale of alcohol and tobacco, and criminalized unlawful conduct or disobeying those restrictions. Mark Heywood: Our ‘hard’ lockdown, which started on March the 26 th 2020, was introduced under the Disaster Management Act, which established a national state of disaster. I’m wondering about your update on that question. It’s been over nine months since you wrote that. You concluded by saying that whether South Africa ultimately comes out on the right or wrong side of human rights remains to be seen. I spoke with Heywood in late March 2021 to get an update on the state of human rights and the rule of law in South Africa one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. Our conversation, which has been edited and condensed, follows.Ĭhloe Reichel: Maybe we could start where your blog post left off in June 2020. Mark Heywood highlighted some of these rights concerns last June in “ Human Rights, the Rule of Law, and COVID-19 in South Africa,” a contribution to Bill of Health‘s digital symposium on global responses to COVID-19. The lockdown has been enforced strictly, resulting in hundreds of thousands of arrests for violations. Since the start of the pandemic, the country has experienced varying degrees of lockdown, which, at different points, included a curfew, bans on the sale of alcohol and tobacco, and the closure of most businesses. The pandemic has also profoundly affected South Africans’ constitutionally recognized rights. ![]() Research shows the country has recorded 150,000 excess deaths since May 2020. The true toll, in terms of cases and deaths, is likely much higher. South Africa has faced a devastating national COVID-19 epidemic, with over 1.5 million confirmed cases, and over 50,000 confirmed deaths. ![]()
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