On 31 March 2017, President Jacob Zuma announced a cabinet reshuffle, removing the Minister of Finance (Mr Pravin Gordhan) and his deputy (Mr Mcebisi Jonas), replacing them with Mr Malusi Gigaba and Mr Sfiso Buthelezi. On 4 April 2017, the Democratic Alliance launched a review application challenging the constitutional validity of the cabinet reshuffle. The DA sought disclosure of the record of the President's decision in terms of rule 53 of the Uniform Rules of Court, including an alleged "intelligence report" that was in the public domain. After correspondence failed to produce the record, the DA approached the High Court urgently to compel disclosure. The High Court accepted there was no precedent for applying rule 53 to executive decisions but used a purposive interpretation to conclude that rule 53 covered executive decisions and ordered disclosure. The President was granted leave to appeal. Before the appeal hearing, President Zuma resigned, President Ramaphosa effected a new cabinet reshuffle, and the review application was withdrawn by agreement between the parties on 18 April 2018.
The appeal was dismissed with costs including the costs of two counsel.
An appeal will be dismissed as moot where the decision sought will have no practical effect or result, as provided in section 16(2)(a)(i) of the Superior Courts Act 10 of 2013. Where a review application is withdrawn, an appeal against an interlocutory order in those proceedings (such as an order compelling disclosure of the record under rule 53) becomes moot because the order would serve no practical purpose. A court will not exercise its discretion to hear a moot appeal unless it raises a discrete legal point requiring no detailed consideration of facts and where the order will have some practical effect on the parties or others. Courts should not give advisory opinions on abstract propositions of law in the absence of a live controversy. The development and amendment of court rules falls within the constitutional mandate of the Rules Board for Courts of Law, not the courts through interpretive expansion.
The court noted, without deciding definitively, that the High Court's decision to apply rule 53 to executive decisions was not unprecedented, citing Van Zyl v Government of the Republic of South Africa 2008 (3) SA 294 (SCA) (where rule 53 was applied to an executive decision) and Helen Suzman Foundation v Judicial Service Commission [2018] ZACC 8 (where rule 53 was applied to a decision of the JSC regarding judicial appointments). The court observed that it would be neither practical nor desirable to postulate in the abstract under what circumstances and on what grounds a cabinet reshuffle might be taken on review and disclosure of the record demanded under rule 53. The court suggested that the appellant's argument that the High Court breached separation of powers by extending rule 53 would equally apply to the Supreme Court of Appeal if it were to decide the issue, reinforcing that such matters are best left to the Rules Board. The court refrained from expressing any view on the merits of the appeal given its finding on mootness.
This case reaffirms the principle of mootness in South African appellate law and clarifies the circumstances under which courts will decline to hear appeals that no longer present a live controversy. It demonstrates judicial restraint in avoiding advisory opinions on abstract legal propositions, particularly where the factual matrix underlying the dispute has fundamentally changed. The judgment reinforces the role of the Rules Board for Courts of Law in developing and amending court rules, rather than courts expanding rules through interpretation. It also indicates (obiter) that rule 53 has been applied to executive decisions in previous cases, though the court declined to make a definitive pronouncement on this issue in the absence of a live dispute. The case serves as an important reminder that interlocutory appeals may be rendered moot when the underlying main application is withdrawn.