Ios Essay

IOS2601 semester 2

s relevant for assignments. Hope it will help.

Jaga v Donge (The Minority Judgement)

In the minority decision of Jaga v Donges 1950 (4) SA 653 (A) Judge Schreine identified the following guidelines for interpretation of statutes:

• Right from the outset, the interpreter may take the wider context of provisions (eg. its ambit and purpose) into consideration with the legislative text in question.

• Irrespective of how clear or unambiguous the grammatical meaning of he legislative text may seem to be, the relevant contextual factors (e.g. The practical effects of different interpretations, as well as the background of the provision) must be taken into account.

• Sometimes this wider context may even be more important than the legislative text.

• Once the meaning of the text and context (language-in-context) is determined, it must be applied, irrespective of whether the interpreter is of the opinion that the legislature intended something else.

Facts of the case

Jaga was caught selling unwrought gold and was sentenced to 3 months imprisonment suspended for 3 years. The Minister declared Jaga an undesirable inhabitant of the Union and a warrant for his deportation to India was issued. Jaga challenged his deportation on the basis that he hadn’t been sentenced to imprisonment and the Minister argued that a suspended sentence of imprisonment is still a sentence of “imprisonment” within the ordinary meaning of the provision. Jaga argued that “imprisonment” meant actual (as opposed to merely potential) imprisonment and he wasn’t actually and physically held in prison.

In Jaga v Donges , Schreiner JA rejected this narrow view & stated that the interpreter could examine the broader context even when the text was quite clear.

• Legislation cannot be construed properly if text and context are separated.20

• The meaning of the words of the text should be weighed up against the broader context of the

legislation.

• From the outset...