As the strong-arms tactics of the police and the army came into sharp focus yesterday (see separate reports below), including in one instance a home invasion, President Cyril Ramaphosa last night ramped up the fight against Covid-19, announcing 10 000 field workers are set to go door-to-door across the country to screen residents for symptoms.

By last night SA had 1 326 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and three people had died, said the President in a national address.

According to a Daily Maverick report, Ramaphosa said field workers would soon start going to households to screen people for symptoms. Those who show symptoms will be referred for testing at clinics and mobile clinics. Those infected but showing no symptoms or moderate symptoms will be instructed to self-isolate, either at home or in a government facility, while those who have severe symptoms will be referred to hospital.

He also noted a mobile technology system would soon be rolled out to help trace people’s contacts in real-time.

Full Daily Maverick report

The country's miners are struggling, with Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum having to declare force majeure on some contracts, notes a Business Maverick report. In a generic letter to suppliers, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) says: ‘We refer to the agreement between the parties. In light of the Covid-19 crisis and the measures imposed by the government … together with the announcement made on 23 March 2020 by the President … the company’s performance of its obligations under the agreement cannot be performed for reasons outside the reasonable control of the company and therefore the company is issuing this force majeure notice and all obligations are suspended for the duration of the force majeure period.’ Amplats spokesperson Jana Marais confirmed this was the case. The company also reiterated that it will ‘pay all employees their basic salaries and housing allowances and continue with company contributions to medical and pension funds throughout the 21-day lockdown period’. Rival Impala Platinum was in the same boat, saying in a statement: ‘Force majeure letters have been issued to all consultants and contractors for the duration of the lockdown, to legally suspend our obligations under these contracts. Force majeure letters have also been issued in respect of offtake agreements with both group companies and third parties, as well as customer supply contracts, to legally suspend our obligations under these contracts.’ The company has also put all of its SA mines on ‘care and maintenance’, so they are no longer producing but have a skeleton staff to maintain the integrity of the operations. A Business Day report notes Sibanye-Stillwater has also triggered a force majeure clause in its contracts.

Full Business Maverick report

Full Business Day report (subscription needed)

The Constitutional Court was called into action yesterday, but quickly dismissed a little-known NGO’s application to have the lockdown declared unconstitutional.

The Hola Bon Renaissance Foundation urgently approached the court on Thursday last week – on the eve of the lockdown – asking it to declare the 21-day lockdown unconstitutional.

A TimesLIVE report notes the NGO had wanted the court to declare that Covid-19 ‘poses no serious threat to the country and its people’.

‘HBR Foundation believes that Covid-19 cannot be harmful to Africans,’ it said.

‘The Constitutional Court has considered the application for direct access to this court on an urgent basis. It has concluded that the application should be dismissed as it bears no reasonable prospects of success,’ the court said.

Full TimesLIVE report

After the papers were filed, the Constitutional Court judges only had to deal with one question – were they prepared to let the foundation come directly to the Constitutional Court with its application?

The judges took virtually no time at all to reach their decision.

Here’s what the court had to say in response to this question: ‘The Constitutional Court has considered the application for direct access to this court on an urgent basis. It has concluded that the application should be dismissed as it bears no reasonable prospects of success. The court has decided not to award costs.’

According to legal writer Carmel Rickard in The Witness, it is an elegant solution to the problem posed by the application, with its fake news and pseudo-science overlay.

This application followed a similar attempt to have a case by the foundation heard by the Constitutional Court directly, rather than going through the normal channels.

The judges in that matter were just as unanimous as on this occasion, that it was not appropriate to allow the case to start in the Constitutional Court, and the application was dismissed.

Full report in The Witness (subscription needed)

In another court matter, a Dutch man who leads a large Durban-based subsidiary of an international firm failed in his bid to get his son out of SA ahead of the lockdown, with a judge ruling that it was ‘akin to panic buying’, according to a Times Select report.

The father, who is separated from his wife, launched an urgent KZN High Court (Durban) application to get an order allowing his teenage son to go back to the Netherlands, where, he argued, he would be safe from crime and have access to better health care during the Covid-19 pandemic.

His estranged wife opposed the application, saying the 13-year-old child would be safe with her in a gated estate on the KZN North Coast.

The father told the court the couple had separated last year and, from January this year, his son had been living with him.

Judge Rob Mossop Mossop refused to grant the order, saying the child would be safe in SA, had access to private medical aid and the father was being ‘overly concerned, akin to panic buying’.

Full Times Select report (subscription needed)