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decisions, specifically a no-fly list, which lack transparency. Canada would benefit from having an overall more representative, accountable, and transparent Parliament.
4. Implementation of the Good Governance Principles in South Africa Good governance in South Africa is regulated and promoted through administrative law, which contains a normative framework for the relation between the administration and the citizens. Maladministration can be defined broadly to cover all cases of economic mismanagement, political inefficiency, and corruption. Maladministration has a demoralizing effect on the citizens of South Africa and produces an apathetic and disinterested electorate. It is true that African states have experienced economic decline since independence due mostly to a mismanagement of resources.156 We also find in South Africa bid rigging, corruption, maladministration, and political elites serving their own personal interests. Unlike many developing countries in Africa, South African citizens have a fundamental right to just administration. This requires all administrative action to meet the minimum requirements of lawfulness, reasonableness, and procedural fairness. Further, legislative enactments have been undertaken to realize this right and further its development within the governance sector.
(a) Good governance and just administration It is stated that the concepts of democracy, the rule of law, and good governance are the cornerstones of the modern state, and that governance concerns the state’s ability to serve its citizens.157 This position is justified by the fact that good governance is a citizen’s right as well as a governmental norm. This is true for many countries, including South Africa—albeit only within the last twenty years. While the term ‘good governance’ is not a term used to describe the oversight of governmental power in South Africa, it translates effectively into what the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (1996) terms ‘just administration’. In Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South Africa158 the Constitutional Court explained that administrative law forms the core of public law in South Africa and overlaps with constitutional law due to the fact that it deals both with organs of state and their relationships with individuals. However, administrative law emphasizes administrative action by the public administration. President of RSA v SARFU159 refines this by stating that the administration is the part of government that is primarily concerned with the implementation of legislation. Thus, in summary, administrative law regulates the activities of bodies that exercise public power or perform public functions. In other words, it regulates the act of governance. It limits the exercise of power by requiring all administrative action to meet the minimum requirements of lawfulness, reasonableness, and procedural fairness as demanded by section 33 of the Constitution of South Africa. We can see how good governance translates effectively to ‘just administration’ in this context.
157 Theletsane 2014, 842. Addink 2015a, 8. Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of SA and Another: In re ex parte President Republic of South Africa 2000 (2) SA 674 (CC). 159 President of the Republic of South Africa v SARFU 2000 1 SA1 (CC). 156 158
