The South African government announced regulations this month authorizing it to forcibly isolate people who test positive with Covid-19, should they refuse admission into a health facility.
Regulation 6: Refusal of Treatment and Isolation
The February 1 amendment to the controversial Disaster Management Act, known as Regulation 6, holds that “no person who is a confirmed laboratory positive COVID-19 case and is symptomatic, may refuse to be treated or to be admitted to a health establishment for treatment or isolation in order to prevent transmission.”
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Regulation 6, also establishes that “if a person does not comply with the instruction or order of the enforcement officer that person must be placed in isolation at a health facility for a period not exceeding 48 hours, pending a warrant being issued by a competent Court, on application by an enforcement officer for the purposes of isolation or treatment.”
South Africa’s 2020 Attempt To Force Vaccination Under Threat of Isolation
The legality of the new amendment will likely be challenged in light of an unsuccessful legal action against isolation laws in the High Court of South Africa in 2020.
In another unsuccessful challenge to the government-imposed national state of disaster, High Court Judge Norman Davis opined that the lockdown regime was “irrational” and constitutionally flawed, writing “the clear inference I drew from the evidence is that once the minister had declared a national state of disaster, little or, in fact, no regard was given to the extent of the impact of individual regulations on constitutional rights of people.”
In both cases, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal rejected challenges to isolation orders and the state of disaster rules and sided with government COVID policies.
Despite these appellate defeats, late last year the government relaxed its stance on contact tracing.
South African Opposition to Vaccine Mandates
As in other nations like Canada, France, and the United States, some South Africans have protested vaccination mandates, but it remains to be seen how widespread opposition will become.
Citizen lobby group Dear South Africa joined Afriforum, an Afrikaner-focused civil rights organization, in a legal action to End the State of Disaster, which was extended to February 15. As of today, Nearly 25,000 people wrote to the group about the legal action. Afrikaners comprise about three million out of approximately 49 million South Africans.
Malawian immunologist Kondwani Jambo and South Africa vaccinologist Prof. Shabbir Madhi called COVID an endemic disease and said people must learn to live with it.
South Africa’s Opposition to Vaccine Mandates in Context
Critics of South Africa’s handling of COVID-19 public health responses have argued that it failed to adequately explain the rationale behind its most forceful measures.
South Africa’s recent history has been shaped by popular uprisings against the apartheid state and more recently against the ruling African National Congress over civil rights abuses and persistent inequality.
Others have argued that the government is not capable of enforcing the mass quarantines it is attempting to impose. South Africans, whose youth suffer 70 percent unemployment, are deeply skeptical of their government and observers note the quarantine rules will only deepen citizens’ distrust.
Despite relatively modest vaccination rates, South Africa’s COVID-19 infection rates have trailed those of many Western nations. Medical professionals like Zimbabwe’s Dr. Jackie Stone have attributed relatively low COVID infection and death rates attributed to the disease to high levels of natural immunity, use of indigenous medicines like artemisia annua, repurposed medicines such as ivermectin, and local experience in treating viruses like HIV.
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