COVID-19 and military justice (South Africa)

Judge Hans Fabricius
North Gauteng Division
High Court of South Africa

Franny Rabkin, legal reporter for the Mail & Guardian, has this helpful account of the two days of hearings in the North Gauteng Division of the High Court in Pretoria. Judge Hans Fabricius has not yet handed down his ruling in the Khosa lockdown brutality case.

Ms. Rabkin writes:

The main parties to the dispute also remained far apart on whether the defence minister was required by law to put in place a code of conduct and operational procedures specifically for joint operations between the police and the defence force — with [Hamilton] Maenetje and [Tembeke] Ngcukaitobi (supported by friend of the court, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute) having very different readings of the Defence Act. 

Ngcukaitobi argued that the adoption of a code was required by law and that the army and police were now acting in a legislative vacuum, without proper guidance or according to internal guidelines that did not properly state the law. Ngcukaitobi said: “It lies ill in their mouth to say their soldiers know what the rules are. If they did, they would not have hit Mr Khosa with the butt of a machine gun.”