Judgment No. SC 54/2018
Case No. SC 228/14
was further elucidated by Diplock LJ in Mixnam’s Properties Ltd v Chertsey UDC [1964]
1 QB 214, at 237, as follows:
“…. the kind of unreasonableness which invalidates a by-law is not the antonym of
‘reasonableness’ in the sense in which the expression is used in the common law,
but such manifest arbitrariness, injustice or partiality that a court would say:
‘Parliament never intended to give authority to make such rules; they are
unreasonable and ultra vires’ …. .”
Kruse v Johnson has been perennially affirmed and applied in our courts in
adjudicating the validity of by-laws and other delegated legislation. See, for instance, City
of Salisbury v Mehta 1962 (1) SA 675 (FC) at 678, 689, 692; S v Nyamapfukudza 1983 (2)
ZLR 43 (SC) at 46; Patriotic Front – Zimbabwe African People’s Union v Minister of
Justice, Legal & Parliamentary Affairs 1985 (1) ZLR 305 (SC) at 323, 325, 330, 332; S v
Delta Consolidated (Pvt) Ltd & Ors 1991 (2) ZLR 234 (SC) at 238. I entertain no doubt
that the rules enunciated in that case continue to retain their soundness and
authoritativeness in the present context.
As regards the need to exercise benevolence in the construction and
application of by-laws, it was observed by Cozens-Hardy MR in the case of Williams v
Weston-super-Mare UDC (No. 2) (1910) 103 LT 9, at 11, that the courts:
“ought to assume, and assume strongly, that the local authority is exercising their
duty honestly and doing their best for the benefit of the locality; they being
entrusted by Parliament with powers for that express purpose.”
The need for judicial restraint in the administrative realm is also captured
in the maxim omnia praesumuntur rite et solemniter esse acta. It is trite that every
enactment by implication imports the principle underlying this maxim. See Bennion:
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