Tjaart Jurgens Maré Doctor Legum Universiteit van die Vrystaat

Die 1983-Grondwet het geen menseregte-akte bevat nie en het ook geen
konstitusionele waarborge verskaf aan die inwoners van die land nie. Die
voormalige Minister van Justisie, Kobie Coetzee, het self ʼn artikel gepubliseer
waarin hy gepoog het om te verduidelik hoekom dit nie gepas was om ʼn Handves
van Menseregte in die 1983-Grondwet in te sluit nie. 216
Daar was ʼn dringende behoefte om ʼn grondwet te bekom. Die eerste tree hiertoe is
deur akademici geneem toe ʼn konferensie in 1986 in Pretoria gehou is om ʼn
handves vir menseregte vir Suid-Afrika te bespreek.
Die ANC, toe nog ʼn verbode organisasie, het reeds in 1988 ʼn konsep-grondwet die
lig laat sien. Die Regskommissie het in 1989 sy verslag rakende menseregte
gepubliseer. Verskeie vrae is gevra watter klousules in ʼn nuwe Grondwet ingesluit
moes word.
Die ongeveer veertig jaar voor die totstandkoming van die Interim-Grondwet, was
nie ʼn bloeitydperk vir die administratiefreg nie. Regsgeleerdes het van die
standpunt uitgegaan dat administratiefreg “was nothing more than a jumped-up form
of statutory interpretation; a few principles and a number of presumptions, which did
not mean much anyway, because parliament could at any time override any
presumption operating in favour of the individual”.
ʼn Goeie prentjie van die administratiefreg van hierdie tydperk word geskets deur
W.H.B. Dean in sy Artikel genaamd : “Our Administrative Law : A Dismal
Science” 217 .
“Notwithstanding a blossoming of interest in the subject amongst lawyers,
administrative law remains a somewhat depressing area of South African law.
It has developed within a system of government which concentrates enormous
powers in the hands of the executive and the state administration and in which
law has been used to check or structure these powers, but rather to facilitate
their exercise by giving those in whom they are vested as much freedom as
possible to exercise them in the way they see best. 218 In this process the
South African Courts have at times appeared to be all too willing partners
displaying what virtually accounts to a phobia of any judicial intervention in the
exercise of powers by administrative agencies. 219 As a result, administrative
law often appears to be ‘an almost mystical field in which the executive is free
to do not only whatever it wills, but also to undo whatever it has done’. 220 Apart
from this, until relatively recently, South African administrative law has been
216 Coetzee, 1984:5.
217 Dean, 1986:164.
218 Sien byvoorbeeld Goldberg v Minister of Prisons 1979(1) SA 14 (A).
219 Sien Appèlregter Holmes se uitspraak in National Transport Commission v Chetty’s Motor Transport (Pty) Limited 1972(3) SA 726 (A) op 735 G-H.
220 Sien Sachs v Dönges No 1950(2) SA 265 (A).
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