On 2 June 2020, Judge N Davis, sitting in the Gauteng Division
of the High Court, handed down a judgment declaring invalid the
regulations made by the Minister of Co-operative Governance and
Traditional Affairs in terms of the Disaster Management Act, 57 of
2002. An application had been brought by one Reyno Dawid de Beer
and a voluntary community association known as the Liberty Fighters
Network. Another non-profit organisation, the Hola Bon Renaissance
Foundation, also addressed the Court as an "
amicus
curiae".
In his judgement, Judge Davis ruled that the manner in which the
Regulations curtailed the constitutional rights of the public (in
particular the rights to freedom of movement, association and
economic activity) bore no rational relationship to the objective
the Regulations the intended to achieve, namely to slow the rate of
infection and curtail the spread of the COVID-19 virus. He upheld
the declaration of a state of emergency by the Minister,
