Overview
Every month we audit all national and provincial South African Gazette notices of general application against a set of Rule of Law Standards which we have developed from fundamental and well-accepted principles of the rule of law.
October 2020 National and Provincial Gazette Indexes are available HERE.
Using our Indexed and Audited Gazette Summaries
Audited Gazette Summaries allow the public to determine whether basic requirements of the rule of law have or have not been satisfied. To this end they contain information on each notice of general application, about the following:
- Gazette notice publication details
- Heading and title of notice
- Author and status of author
- Entity author represents
- Summary of contents of notice
- Actions taken
- Purpose of actions taken
- Status of actions
- Deadlines for public participation
- Details of legislation referred to (title. year, number and sections)
- Quick access links to legislation (overview, versions list, annotated text, subordinate texts and timeline)
- Commentary on audit results (available as consultancy service only)
Measuring a Gazette Notice against basic Standards of the Rule of Law
Principles of the Rule of Law are self-evidently true as they are based on reason, rationality and logic: For example, an Act that is not published will not be known, and no-one can be expected to comply with it. A notice that purports to publish by-laws that also indicates the relevant Municipal Council still has to approve of them, are not final. A notice that states that it contains by-laws but it does not contain them is not competent to inform the public about of the by-law. And a notice that states it is made in terms of a Bill instead of an Act, is also simply competent.
The Standards we have set for evaluating whether or not a notice has satisfied the relevant principle of the Rule of Law have been chosen because they are self-evident.
Therefore all that is required in measuring an actual Gazette Notice against a Standard is to read the notice critically. Our Gazette indexes are designed to assist you to do that.
The consequences of a Gazette notice failing the rule of law
If a notice fails the rule of law, need it be complied with? That’s an area made very grey by the failure to consistently define the rule of law, and by the failure to properly prescribe the public’s role in monitoring and maintaining the rule of law.
So, for now, you be the judge.