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PAJA
Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 2000 (Act 3 of 2000)
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ABOUT - Terms l Introduction l Administrative Action l Procedural Fairness l Reasons l Judicial Review
Reasons
a. When are reasons given?
It is generally good administrative practice to give reasons for all decisions. The Constitution says the administration must be accountable for its use of public power. This means being able to explain decisions to the people who are affected by them.
According to the PAJA, administrators must give reasons for their administrative action to a person who requests them. Of course, an administrator can give reasons immediately with the decision. Sometimes this can help settle potential disputes already at the very beginning.
The request for reasons must be made within 90 days of the date on which the person became aware (or should have become aware) of the administrative action. The administrator must then give adequate reasons, in writing, within 90 days.
b. Who can request reasons?
Anyone whose rights have been adversely affected by administrative action can request written reasons. This includes someone whose rights have been specifically affected.
c. What are adequate written reasons?
The administrator must provide a satisfactory explanation of why a decision was taken. This does not mean that the reasons have to convince the person that the decision was correct. Instead, the reasons must have enough detail to explain why the administrative action was taken. It is not enough to just repeat the relevant sections of the empowering provisions.
If the person requesting reasons has raised specific questions, these should be answered as far as possible.
The reasons should be written in a language that the requester will understand.
