On 12 March 2025, a High Court judgment ruled that the decision of a municipality to terminate the acting appointment of its Director of Community Services amounted to administrative action that is subject to review in terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act (PAJA).  

The employee had challenged the termination of his acting appointment, seeking to have it set aside as unlawful and invalid. The employee also sought payment of his acting allowance and restoration of his acting appointment.

The court determined that the termination of the employee’s acting appointment amounted to administrative action, based on the following:

  • The municipality is an organ of state and its powers are of a public nature.
  • The power to appoint or to terminate the appointment of a manager (or acting manager) is derived from the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act and is a public function.
  • Any irregularity in the exercise of these powers can adversely affect the rights of the public and ratepayers.
  • The exercise of these powers does not fall within the exclusions from administrative action under PAJA.

Despite these findings, the employee’s application was dismissed without any adjudication of the alleged review grounds, as the employee offered no explanation for bringing the application eight months after the termination of his acting appointment, which exceeded the 180-day period prescribed by PAJA.

Strangely, the judgment did not deal with the Constitutional Court’s decisions in Chirwa and Gcaba which held that disputes arising from public-sector employment relationships should be adjudicated by the Labour Court under the Labour Relations Act, and not by the High Court under PAJA, to avoid undesirable forum-shopping and the development of dual systems of law.

Despite this judgment, public-sector employees seeking to challenge the termination of their employment should generally have recourse to the remedies available in terms of labour legislation.   

Thulo v Nala Local Municipality (2840/2023) [2025] ZAFSHC 75 (12 March 2025)