Government puts plans in place to deal with lockdown legal bill

Government is putting moves in place to pre-empt what could be a considerable legal bill stemming from the national lockdown.

DispatchLIVE reports that among discussions on the table is the appointment of a retired judge who will preside over potential grievances levelled against government in the coming months.

Government anticipates a spate of legal challenges

Justice Minister Ronald Lamola says this is to give citizens a platform to mount legal challenges against the powers that be.

“When you look at most of these issues, particularly with the processes, there are people who are aggrieved by some of the issues but do not have the money to go to court,” he is quoted by the publication.

“So if they raise the dispute the state attorney can then be able to mediate between them and the various departments to say that there is a particular issue and we can resolve it.

“But even for those who do have money who want to take us to court, we are creating a buffer whereby the disputes can be resolved by both parties and they agree that their dispute does not need to be settled through the court, then they can mediate through a judge who can give a ruling that both parties accept.”

Ronald Lamola

Lamola says they are concerned about the potential legal bill, but have also saved costs through consultation prior to implementing the lockdown regulations. 

“Particularly before we issued the regulations, there was a lot of legal work which needed to be done,” he said.

“Things such as getting opinions on whether the proposals met constitutional muster. As a result of the sheer volume of the work we needed extra hands from outside. Only in certain cases have we had to pay normal fees. We are grateful because we would not have had the capacity to deal with it on our own expediently.”

Ronald Lamola

South Africa recently entered into Level 4 of lockdown regulations, easing some of the restrictions.