On 28 February 2012 the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development released the Discussion Document on the Transformation of the Judicial System and the Role of the Judiciary in the Developmental South African State (the “Discussion Document”), which details a number of initiatives and reforms that are underway to transform the judiciary, as well as discusses the proposed role of the judiciary in the social transformation of society. The Discussion Document also lays the foundation for a proposed review of the judgments of the South African courts, in an attempt to determine the impact of these judgments on the transformation of society. Subsequently, the Department also released the Terms of Reference for the Assessment of the Impact of the Decisions of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal on the South African Law and Jurisprudence (the “Terms of Reference”), which forms the framework within which this proposed review will be conducted. One of the main aims of these documents was to facilitate a discussion and debate on the issues related to the transformation of state and society. This submission by the Socio-Economic Rights and Administrative Justice Research Project (“SERAJ”), a research project of the University of Stellenbosch‟s Law Faculty, aims to engage in this debate and raise some pertinent concerns in relation to the review of the judiciary and the proposed assessment of the decisions of the higher courts.

Submission by Socio-Economic Rights and Administrative Justice (SERAJ) Research Group at Stellenbosch University