Criminal law Advocate Carlo Viljoen was in the Western Cape High Court yesterday to tackle the government’s ban on hairdressers and salons.

According to TimesLIVE, he told the court that he was acting in his private capacity when he brought an urgent application to scrap the ban on the hairdressing and salon industry.

Viljoen said he has wide support in the industry. He had received support in the form of e-mails from 159 hairstylists from around the country, many of whom were single mothers living from hand to mouth.

He has also been working with a hairdressers’ support group, who he said have received 592 requests from hairdressers requesting food relief after lockdown restrictions banned them from doing business.

The judge agreed with him that there was a prima facie basis for the case on the fundamental right to earn a living.

But his argument ran into several difficulties, including confusion about which Minister needed to be cited as a respondent in the matter.

The Health Minister’s defence counsel Adiel Nacerodien argued that he should rather have cited Minister of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, as she was responsible for creating the regulations.

Viljoen argued that according to the revised regulations published in April, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize had the power to make recommendations to Nkosazana-Zuma. But Judge Lee Bozalek pointed out that Nkosazana-Zuma did not have to act on the recommendations if she did not wish to.

Viljoen also argued that the cost of the ban – he claimed it was a R250bn per annum industry – was greater than the potential cost of risking Covid-19 infections.

While 1.5% of the population could die of Covid-19, he said deaths related to poverty resulting from the ban would be much higher, notes TimesLIVE.

Bozalek said if he ordered the opening of salons based on current Covid-19 infections and the infection rate mushroomed in three weeks’ time, he would have no way to reverse his decision.

‘The effect of my interdict will be to declare regulations for hairstylists null and void,’ he said, adding that what Viljoen was really asking for fell in the realm of a final relief, which is a much more stringent process.

‘You’re asking me to extend an order into the future. In three weeks’ time, when infections have mushroomed, I can’t reverse my order,’ said Bozalek.

He also said that his order would amount to trumping the government’s decision making on how to govern the crisis.

‘Government is advised by experts and they make their choices based on those recommendations. Who’s to say their call is wrong and mine is right?’ he asked Viljoen.

Judgment in the matter will be handed down at 3pm today.

Full TimesLIVE report