Public interest body Sakeliga tries to have Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma prosecuted for contempt of court

Public interest organisation Sakeliga has instructed its lawyers to draw up an application to have the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, jailed for contempt of court.

The organisation said last week that she had refused to comply with a court order to provide it with documentation relating to the government’s Covid-19 response and instead sent them thousands of pages of documents that were already in the public domain.

Sakeliga is taking Dlamini Zuma to court in her capacity as minister and as political head of the department that managed South Africa’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic after President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a State of Disaster in March 2020.

Sakeliga instituted legal action against her after she refused it access to documentation explaining lockdown regulations and decisions to keep the State of Disaster in place. Sakeliga has indicated that it will legally challenge the decision to declare a State of Disaster.

Dlamini Zuma had, in a lawyer’s letter, indicated her opposition to making the documents public, saying they were covered by privilege that attaches to the Cabinet. Her lawyers also filed court papers making technical objections to the court case. But she never filed opposing papers.

As a result, the Pretoria High Court ordered that Dlamini Zuma hand over the documents Sakeliga requested.

Dlamini Zuma was to hand over the documents by the start of December. This deadline was extended to 6 January, but last week the organisation’s CEO, Piet le Roux, said they had not received a satisfactory response from her.

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The documents to which Sakeliga seeks access are:

• Records and documents relied on by Dlamini Zuma when she made decisions about Covid-19 regulations, including those on which decisions to extend the State of Disaster were based;


• Reasons for the regulations; and


• Deliberations, communications, and memorandums.

Le Roux said Sakeliga had instructed its attorneys to proceed with a contempt of court application.

“While [it is] obvious that Dlamini Zuma is frustrating Sakeliga and the court, it is a legal requirement that we prove her contempt with a particular court application. It is necessary to force her to either reveal the records or face jail time.”

He said they had received “thousands of pages that were generally already in the public domain, omitting crucial documents such as meeting minutes, interdepartmental correspondence, draft regulations and changes”.

Le Roux said it would take them a few weeks to draw up their court papers and he hoped that Dlamini Zuma would use this opportunity to comply with the court order.

“In the current matter, Dlamini Zuma is the focus of our application because she was legally responsible for the decisions and is, therefore, the proper address for an information request and subsequent court order.”

He said the organisation was committed to seeing the application through to the end. DM/MC