Judgment No. CCZ 3/2016 7
Const. Application No. CCZ 123/13
Section 33(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 on which s
68 of the Constitution is broadly modeled provides:
“Just Administrative Action
33(1)Every one has the right to administrative action that
is lawful, reasonable and
procedurally fair.
(2)Everyone whose rights have been adversely affected by administrative action has the
right to be given written reasons.
(3)National legislation must be enacted to give effect to these rights and must –
(a) provide for the review of administrative action by a court or, where appropriate, an
independent and impartial tribunal.
(b) impose a duty on the State to give effect to the rights in subsections (1) and (2) and
(c) promote an efficient administration.”
The rights given under subs (1) and (2) of s 33 of the Constitution of the Republic
of South Africa were given effect to by the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act No. 3 of
2000 (PAJA) which is the equivalent of our Administrative Justice Act (AJA). Commenting on
the relationship of PAJA to administrative justice rights and the status of rights in s 33 of the
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa CURRIE I and DE WAAL J in the “Bill of Rights
Handbook”, JUTA & Co. 6 ed. at p 646 say:
“Since the commencement of the PAJA judicial review of administrative action generally
has a legislative basis. In other words, it is based on the rights, duties and remedies
provided for in the Act itself. The rights to just administrative action in the Constitution
now play an indirect rather than direct role in judicial review.”
At p 649 of the “Bill of Rights Handbook” the learned authors state:
“Before the introduction of PAJA, challenges to the validity of administrative action were
constitutional challenges based on the rights to administrative justice in the Bill of Rights
– rights that are interpreted by reference to corresponding rights in the common law. But
what is the status of the constitutional rights in section 33 today?
The PAJA “gives effect to” the constitutional rights in section 33. This means that the
Act makes the rights effective by providing an elaborated and detailed expression of the
rights to just administrative action and providing remedies to vindicate them. The
constitutional rights exist independently of the statute that gives effect to them, but retreat
to a background role. This is because Parliament chose to give effect to the rights in