Tjaart Jurgens Maré Doctor Legum Universiteit van die Vrystaat

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Konstitusionele reg hou hom besig met die skepping van ʼn regering, terwyl
administratiefreg betrokke is by die administrasie van die regering.
3. ADMINISTRATIEWE GEREGTIGHEID
Hoe pas administratiewe geregtigheid in by die Grondwet en die administratiefreg?
Burns laat haar soos volg uit oor die aspek van administratiewe geregtigheid :
“One of the main reasons for the constitutional protection of the right to just
administrative action can be traced back to the former ‘apartheid’ days when a
powerful executive and administrative bureaucracy exerted a strong influence on
individual lives. Legislative and administrative measures were used to implement the
policy of the day and contraventions of the measures were dealt with swiftly and
efficiently.
The administrative justice clause serves to protect the individual from administrative
abuse by ensuring that all administrative action is lawful (in that it is correctly
performed) and that it adheres to certain standards of reasonableness and substantive
and procedural fairness. The requirement that reasons must be provided for
administrative action will go a long way towards ensuring administrative accountability,
openness and transparency in government, since decisions taken by the
administration which affect rights will have to be based on reasons which can be
legally substantiated, or face the possibility of judicial review.” 264
Streng gesproke kry administratiewe geregtigheid sy ontstaan van die nie-judisiële
komponent van die regering, veral staatsdepartemente, statutêre tribunale, rade, ens.
Die begrip "administratiewe geregtigheid” is van relatiewe onlangse oorsprong in Suid-
Afrika. Die 1983-Grondwet bevat ook nie ʼn klousule wat verwys na administratiewe
geregtigheid nie. Hoewel daar geen direkte vermelding gemaak word van die begrip
“administratiewe geregtigheid” nie, moet dit nie uit die oog verloor word nie dat ʼn sisteem
van administratiewe geregtigheid wel bestaan het. Deur interne kontrolemaatreëls was dit
nog altyd deel van die Suid-Afrikaanse administratiefreg. Geregtigheid is in die verlede
steeds bevorder deur die toepassing van die reëls van natuurlike geregtigheid.
Boulle265 is van mening dat administratiewe geregtigheid in sowel ʼn prosedurele as ʼn
substantiewe sin verstaan moet word. Prosedureel sal administratiewe geregtigheid reëls
van billikheid of die nakoming van die reëls van natuurlike geregtigheid omvat (analoog
aan die beginsel van "due process" in die Amerikaanse Reg). In die substantiewe sin het
264 Burns, 1999:125.
265 Boulle, 1986:136.