Towards an inclusive approach to e-Governance: A Case for Administrative Justice in South Africa

Abstract

Impartial, fair and reasonable decision making by public institutions in South Africa as advocated for in administrative law, still faces significant challenges. In this paper, we propose a different approach to the implementation of the Provision of Administrative Justice Act. Based on previous research and government reports which highlight the lack of capacity within communities to participate in administrative decision making, this paper presents a theoretically informed approach for e-governance as a way of getting feedback and as a way of discussing existing services. Toulmin et al’s schema of reasoning and Courtney’s decision making paradigm form the theoretical basis of the framework. The process embedded in the framework can be facilitated by specially designed decision support systems which create a forum in which clarity can be obtained on service delivery problems and different perspectives on solving them can be elicited.