Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of South Africa: In re Ex Parte President of the Republic of South Africa

Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association of SA and Another: In re ex parte President of the Republic of South Africa and Others is an important case in South African constitutional law. It deals with relevant issues about the role of the courts in controlling public power, and raises the question of whether or not a court has the power to review and set aside a decision by the President of South Africa to bring an Act of Parliament into force.

The Constitutional Court held that the purpose of section 172(2)(a) was to ensure that the Constitutional Court, as the highest court in constitutional matters, controls declarations of constitutional invalidity made against the highest organs of state. This purpose would be defeated, the court found, if the issue in casu, concerning the legality of the President's conduct (a matter of considerable importance), were characterised as not falling within section 172(2)(a); that would be to remove it from the controlling power of the Constitutional Court. The section was, therefore, to be given a wide meaning as far as the President's conduct was concerned.