key to the study guide - Name

legislative body, every government organ (eg the civil or public service)
and every court in South Africa is bound by the decisions of the
constitutional court.
2.2 The supreme court of appeal (previously the appellate division)
The supreme court of appeal is the highest court in all non-constitutional
matters and is characterised by the following:
(1) It must follow the decisions of the constitutional court.
(2) Although it must also follow its own previous decisions, it may
deviate from them if it is convinced that in a particular case, a
previous judgment was wrong on a particular point. It matters not
how many judges handed down the judgment.
(3) The supreme court of appeal has jurisdiction to hear appeals in any
matter, including constitutional matters which do not fall within the
exclusive jurisdiction of the constitutional court (s 168(3) of the
Constitution). Besides this, the supreme court of appeal can hear any
issue connected with an appeal and other matters referred to it in
termsofanAct.
2.3 The different divisions of the high court (previously the supreme court)
The high court is characterised by the following:
(1) All divisions of the high court are bound by the judgments of the
constitutional court and the supreme court of appeal and may not
deviate from them.
(2) Where there is no applicable decision by the constitutional court or
the supreme court of appeal, the provincial division and any local
division within the particular province are bound by all the judgments
of the high courts in that province if the court is made up of the same
number of judges or more. (The Transvaal provincial division, for
example, is bound by its own judgments and by those of the
Witwatersrand local division, and the Durban and Coast local division
is bound by its own judgments and by those of the Natal provincial
division.) This means that (within a particular province) the full bench
or a court with more than one judge is never bound by the judgments
of a single judge. A single judge is bound by the judgments of a court
consisting of one or two or three judges; two judges are bound by the
judgments of a court with two or three judges; and three judges (a full
bench) are bound only by the judgments of a court with three judges.
(3) In the absence of a decision on a particular point in the same
provincial division or in a local division within the particular province,
a provincial or local division is not bound by a decision on the same
point in a provincial or local division within another province,
although such decisions usually have persuasive force.
11