Court rules against Afriforum and Solidarity over Covid-19 tourism relief fund

The North Gauteng High Court has ruled in favour of the Department of Tourism, in a legal battle brought by Afriforum and Solidarity.

They had approached the courts in a bid to have the department’s empowerment-based criteria for businesses seeking government assistance in the wake of covid-19, declared unlawful.

The court found that the empowerment codes as criterion did not discriminate on the basis of race, as Afriforum and Solidarity maintain.

The department, led by Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane has allocated R200 million for the tourism industry, which has been one of the hardest hit sectors, as a result of the global pandemic.

The minister stipulated that businesses needed to be BEE compliant and have a tax clearance certificate, in order to qualify for the assistance.

Kubayi-Ngubane hails relief fund ruling

The minister has welcomed the ruling, saying:

“We have always maintained that the design of our programmes is guided by the principles of fairness and justice. It is, therefore, inconceivable for this particular programme to be discriminatory on the basis on race’’

“This is a great victory for the people of South Africa and for economic inclusivity. Finally, this judgment will set the wheels in motion to allow those who applied and qualified, to now start receiving grants. We had temporarily halted the process to allow the matter to be finalised in court’’

‘’Our people, who are in desperate need of these funds to save their businesses, were subjected to delays by those with little respect for transformation. I am satisfied that the court has reaffirmed our position that even during this crisis, we cannot ignore the fault lines that exists in our society,” said Minister Kubayi-Ngubane.

Afriforum and Solidarity to challenge the decision

Both parties now intend heading to the Constitutional Court to challenge the ruling.

“It is imperative that SA gets legal certainty on whether, in a state of disaster, the constitution allows for discrimination based on race in order to qualify for relief. Solidarity is going to request access to the Constitutional Court. As the crisis is urgent, we believe the matter, too, is urgent,” said Solidarity CEO Dirk Hermann.

This action by the government cannot be justified in any way, and therefore Solidarity will not leave it at that,” Hermann said.