UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

Administrative and Local Government Law LB0 04

June 2004 Examination
Three hours

Instructions:
Answer FOUR questions.
Students must answer THREE questions from Part A and ONE question from Part B.

Each question carries 20 marks. Where questions are subdivided into more than one part,
students must answer all parts of the question and the marks for the question will be
equally divided between the subparts.

In this examination candidates may refer to their own annotated copies of Feltoe’s Guide
to Zimbabwean Administrative Law and their own copies of the Administrative Justice
Bill.

SECTION A
Answer at least one question from this section

Question 1

Is the main purpose of administrative law to prevent the abuse of power by administrative
authorities or to facilitate good administration, and should the courts ever be permitted to
investigate the substantive correctness of administrative decisions?

Question 2

a) Discuss the assertion that a person can only be found to have waived his or her
rights to administrative justice if it is proved that he or she knew of his or her
rights and expressly waived those rights.

b) In what circumstances should the court not require a person to exhaust his or her
internal remedies before approaching the High Court to review an administrative
decision or administrative action?

Question 3

Although the Administrative Justice Bill proclaims the right of everyone to lawful,
reasonable and fair administrative action, these rights are badly undermined by the
provisions in the Bill
¾ allowing administrative authorities to depart from these requirements;

1
 ¾ exempting various bodies from compliance with these requirements and allowing
the Minister to exempt further administrative authorities from complying with
these requirements.

Critically comment on this observation.

Question 4

What should course of action should a review court adopt if it decides

¾ that the chairperson of the administrative body that decided a matter was biased; and
¾ that all members of the administrative body were biased?

Question 5

a) When are the remedies of a mandamus and a declaratory order available and what
makes the declaratory order a particularly useful remedy in administrative cases?
b) What factors will the courts take into account in deciding whether the legislature
impliedly intended that a subordinate authority should be able to sub-delegate its
power to make a decision or take action?

Question 6
a) Mr Maposa wants to start up a small business. Before he can commence this
business, he is required by the Small Business Licensing Act to obtain an
operating licence from the Licensing Board. He applies in writing for a licence.
The Secretary to the Board informs him in writing that his application has been
unsuccessful. The Secretary says that this decision had been reached on the basis
of certain information that had been supplied to the Board that indicates that Mr
Maposa is a highly unsuitable person to hold a licence. Mr Maposa then writes to
the Board. He says in his letter that he has done nothing that would render him
unsuitable to hold a licence and he requests that the Board supply him with details
of the prejudicial information in its possession so that he can refute it. The
Secretary replies to this letter stating that the information is of a confidential
nature and cannot be supplied to him.
The relevant provision in the Small Business Licensing Act are these:

¾ All applications for licences must be submitted in writing and no applicant

shall be entitled to an oral hearing before the Licensing Board.
¾ No person shall be qualified to hold a licence in terms of this Act if, in the
opinion of the Licensing Board, he is an unsuitable person to hold such
licence.
¾ No applicant for a licence shall be entitled to have access to any
confidential information about the applicant held by the Licensing Board.
¾ The decision of the Licensing Board not to grant a licence shall be final and
binding, and the applicant shall have no right of appeal to a court of law against
the decision
Advise Mr Maposa as to his legal remedies.

2
 b) Mr Moyo has been employed by the Ministry of Justice as an interpreter in
Bulawayo for the last six years. Mr Ncube, who is the person in charge of the
interpreters in Bulawayo, informs Mr Moyo by letter that he is in the Ministry that
he is to be transferred from Harare to Beitbridge as from the beginning of the next
month. Mr Moyo was not consulted at all about this transfer and he strongly
objects to it on the grounds that his wife is employed in Bulawayo and his young
children are settled in schools in Bulawayo. The transfer, he says, will severely
disrupt the life of his family as his wife will not be able to accompany him. He
has tried without success to persuade his superiors to reverse the decision to
transfer him to Beitbridge. He says that there are several unmarried interpreters in
Bulawayo and if one of these interpreters were transferred that person would
suffer far less social disruption than himself. He believes that the main reason
why Mr Ncube selected himself to be transferred is that he has often had
disagreements with Mr Ncube in the past and two weeks prior to receiving the
letter of transfer he had accused Mr Ncube of gross incompetence.

Advise Mr Moyo as to whether he has good grounds for taking this matter on
review to the High Court and what the High Court will do if it decides that there
was a reviewable irregularity

____________________________________________________________
SECTION B
Answer at least one question from this section

Question 7
Development processes at local level should be driven by the people in those areas rather
than imposed by provincial councils and central government. Nonetheless there is still
need for co-ordination of development processes by provincial and central government
authorities.

Critically discuss.

Question 8
In your opinion should the Minister have powers to issue directives to an elected Urban
Council and to suspend Council members and appoint Commissioners in their place?

Question 9
Should more powers be devolved by central government to Provincial Councils and
should people in a province directly elect members of these Councils?

Question 10
Before taking decisions local government bodies must always solicit the views of
ratepayers and local residents and should never act contrary to the wishes of ratepayers
and local residents.

Do you agree with this comment?

3
END OF QUESTION PAPER