An urgent application has been made to the Constitutional Court for an order declaring it is unconstitutional that baby clothes for newborns have been left off the list of essential goods available to buy under the lockdown, says a Mail & Guardian report.

‘If this court does not intervene on an urgent basis, the newborn babies born during the lockdown or a few days or hours before the lockdown may be left without clothes to keep their bodies warm,’ said NGOs, the Tebeila Institute of Leadership, Education, Governance and Training and the African Institute for Human Rights and Constitutional Litigation.

The two organisations said in their court papers that the Tebeila Institute had been approached by pregnant women and mothers of newborn babies ‘raising concerns that they are unable to buy clothes for the newborn babies and babies which are due to be delivered during this period of lockdown’.

The Tebeila Institute’s Thabiso Lekoko said the regulation breached section 28(2) of the Constitution, which provides that in every matter concerning a child, the child’s best interests are of paramount importance.

Lekoko said: ‘It is currently unknown whether the period of lockdown will go beyond 16 April 2020 or not. It is of utmost importance that this court deals with the constitutionality of the impugned directive as soon as possible because of its ramifications on the best interest of the newborn babies.’

Lekoko said a direct approach to the Constitutional Court was warranted because going to the High Court could delay matters if the case was taken on appeal.

They want the court to declare the lockdown directives unconstitutional and for the declaration of a new order that ‘shops and businesses selling clothes, blankets, towels, baby beds, and other baby accessories for newborn babies be permitted to operate with immediate effect’.

Full Mail & Guardian report