An application to have the lockdown regulations declared invalid, and the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) declared inconsistent with the Constitution and the Disaster Management Act, was dismissed in the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town on Friday.
The inconvenience and discontent that the regulations have caused the applicants and others have to be weighed against the urgent objective and primary constitutional duty to save lives," reads Allie's judgment.
Allie said she couldn't conceive of an argument more destructive to the applicants' assertion that they acted in the public interest, than their argument that the regulation suspending evictions was unlawful.
Allie said normally a cost order would follow the result, but given that the respondents conceded there was confusion about the role and powers of the NCCC, and the applicants "having cast the ambit of their relief widely", each party must pay its own cost.
The judgment came on the same day as the High Court in Pretoria dismissed, with costs, an application by the Fair Trade Independent Tobacco Association to have the government's ban on the sale of tobacco products overturned.