New directives have been issued under the level 4 lockdown.

With South Africa’s initial hard lockdown, criminal cases pending before the courts had to be postponed, as only urgent matters were heard by judges and magistrates. The Chief Justice recently issued new court directives under level 4, which state that all criminal matters that have been enrolled for hearing during the lockdown period can now be heard. Each court will have to take extraordinary measures, however, to ensure that they are safe and as hygienic as possible before they may start hearing new cases.