In this week’s post, Art Wynberg analyses two judgments handed down by the High Court of South Africa in similar cases concerning asylum seekers who sought judicial review after being denied refugee status. The author highlights the contrasting approaches taken by the court in response to the applicants’ decision to bypass the internal appeal process required under section 7(2)(a) of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (“PAJA”).

The African Law Matters blog is pleased to announce that our 2024 Year End Anthology is now available online. This showcases the blog’s work and the editors’ selected publications from 2024 and can be accessed directly from this blog post.

In this post, Art Wynberg and Daniel Robert Erasmus unpack the Democratic Alliance v Hlophe case, where the Court interdicted Dr. Hlophe, an MP for the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Party, from participating in the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) processes. They critique the Court's classification of the National Assembly's designation of Dr. Hlophe to the JSC as Administrative Action (AA) under the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA). The post examines the broader implications of this ruling, suggesting it could set a precedent for increased judicial review of parliamentary decisions.