MADLANGA J
[73]
For present purposes, the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act109 (PAJA) is
a useful guide. Section 1 of PAJA provides an example that similarly talks about
“designation” by the Minister. A ringingly similar feature is that the designation by the
Minister is also in the definition section and the substantive provisions of PAJA say
nothing more about the conferral of a power to designate. Section 1 of PAJA defines
“court” to include “a Magistrate’s Court . . . designated by the Minister by notice in the
Gazette”. One may be led to believe that this definition is merely descriptive and points
to the Minister being empowered elsewhere in PAJA to designate Magistrates’ Courts.
But nowhere in PAJA is there such empowering provision. Section 9A of PAJA twice
refers to a “Magistrate’s Court designated by the Minister in terms of section 1 of this
Act”. A reading of section 9A and the definition section put it beyond question that the
power to designate is conferred by the definition section itself. Plainly, PAJA meant
for the power to designate to stem directly from the definition. Put differently, the
empowerment of the Minister to designate is implied in the definition in section 1. And
this power to designate is a primary power implied from the language and context of
PAJA; it is not ancillary to another power in PAJA.
[74]
It seems to me it would be unduly formalistic to suggest that – in the absence of
a substantive provision in PAJA providing for the power to designate a
Magistrate’s Court – PAJA has not made provision for the power to designate. It is
plain from the definition that it is envisaged that designations may be made by the
Minister. It also seems clear that the Minister need do nothing more than to reflect the
court she or he has designated in the Gazette. It would be too formalistic to expect that
there be a substantive provision saying the Minister has a power to designate a
Magistrate’s Court by notice in the Gazette. What would that substantive provision
add? Nothing at all.
[75]
Of importance, what is to be gleaned from the definition of “court” in section 1
of PAJA is that the conferral of a power by a provision in the definition section is not
109
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