DA, Sapoa seek court protection against shutdown called by EFF

The EFF's call for a national shutdown on Monday is seeking to bring to a halt all socioeconomic activities in the country, which it plans to do by coercing people to participate. 

This was submitted on Friday by the DA in an urgent application in the Johannesburg high court to interdict the shutdown. 

The South African Property Owners Association (Sapoa) also brought an application seeking to interdict and restrain EFF members from unlawfully interfering with, harassing and assaulting members of the public wishing to enter shopping centres on Monday.

Sapoa also sought an order seeking the removal of any person from the properties where assaults and harassment take place. Judge Leicester Adams heard both applications together. The EFF opposed the applications.

After hearing arguments from all parties, the court reserved judgment until 10am on Saturday morning. The judgment will be sent electronically to the parties. 

The DA sought an order declaring that the shutdown was unlawful. It also sought an order interdicting the EFF, its members, employees and officials from shutting down schools, retail stores, businesses, trade and public roads. 

The DA also sought to interdict the EFF from inciting violence. It sought to interdict the shutdown to the extent it extended beyond notices under the Regulation of Gatherings Act. 

Counsel for the DA Andrew Redding said no notice of the demonstrations or gatherings had been given to local authorities by the EFF as required by the act. He said the notice should be given seven days before the planned gatherings.

“If a shutdown goes ahead and there are gatherings that occur, an inference should be drawn that these gatherings would be unlawful,” he said.

Redding said the EFF was ignoring the provisions of the act and saying, “we can conduct gatherings without complying with any aspect of that act”.

“Our submission is that this is wrong. The EFF is acting unlawfully and contrary to the terms of the act. That unlawful conduct must be declared to be unlawful. This is the fundamental tenet upon which this application is brought.”

Redding said the shutdown had been inherently problematic from the start as it was not simply a conventional protest where people went to the streets and marched.  

“This is a protest that seeks to shut down all socioeconomic activities in the country. It seeks a national shutdown when it does not have the reach and ability to do that. It seeks to do it by coercing people to participate.” 

The language used by the EFF calling for a shutdown conveyed a threat, Redding added.

Shomane Mathiba, for Sapoa, said the rights of the members of his clients were likely to be affected if the shutdown went ahead.

Mathiba said there was a reasonable apprehension of harm after what happened to shopping malls during the July 2021 unrest.

Tshidiso Ramogale, advocate for the EFF, said there was no provision in the Regulation of Gatherings Act that the absence of a notice to gather meant the gathering was prohibited. 

“The absence of a notice does not render the gathering unlawful.”

He relied on a judgment of the Constitutional Court in Mlungwana v State in 2018, which held that if a gathering proceeded without a formal notice, then the act provided it was only a convener who was criminally liable for failure to give notice of a gathering.

Ramogale also challenged the DA’s standing to bring the application. 

“The DA has not shown one right of theirs which will be implicated. Does the DA have an entitlement to be here? It does not. It must show it has a direct and substantial interest in the matter.”

He said the rights the DA relied on vested in citizens and not political parties.

Phumzile Sokhela, also for the EFF, said Sapoa's application should be struck off the roll as it had not shown there was urgency. She said Sapoa had known from January 29 of the shutdown and taken no steps to protect its rights.

LISTEN | The poor will suffer most from Malema’s shutdown, says Mbalula

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