Assignment
[Type the company name] 1
(COMPLETE
ANSWERS)
Semester 2 2025 -
DUE 10 September
2025
NO
PLAGIARISM
[Year]
, Exam (elaborations)
IOS2601 Assignment 1 (COMPLETE
ANSWERS) Semester 2 2025 - DUE 10
September 2025
Course
Interpretation of Statutes (IOS2601)
Institution
University Of South Africa (Unisa)
Book
Statutory Interpretation
IOS2601 Assignment 1 (COMPLETE ANSWERS) Semester 2 2025 - DUE 10
September 2025; 100% TRUSTED Complete, trusted solutions and
explanations. Ensure your success with us....
The Jaga v Dönges 1950 (4) SA 653 (A), which was delivered at the height of
apartheid, remains important for the interpretation of statutes after the
democratic transformation. Kindly read the case and answer the following
questions. (a) BRIEFLY PROVIDE facts of the Jaga case. (6)
In the case of Jaga v Dönges 1950 (4) SA 653 (A), the appellant, Jaga, was an individual who
had been convicted of a crime and was sentenced to a suspended period of imprisonment. The
Minister of the Interior, however, declared him an "undesirable inhabitant" of the Union of South
Africa in terms of the Immigration Regulation Act of 1913, with the intent to have him deported.
Jaga challenged this decision in court, arguing that his conviction and suspended sentence did
not fall within the definition of "sentence to imprisonment" as required by the Act for
deportation. The central legal issue revolved around the interpretation of the statutory provision
that gave the Minister the power to deport. The court had to determine whether a suspended
sentence constituted a "sentence of imprisonment" in the context of the legislation. The case
became a landmark for legal interpretation because it highlighted the conflict between the literal,
textualist approach to statutory interpretation (which a majority of the court favored) and the
purposive, contextual approach (advocated by Justice Schreiner in his famous dissenting
judgment)
Facts of the Jaga case
1. The appellant, Jaga, was an Indian man who had been convicted of a criminal offence.
2. Following his conviction, the Minister of the Interior (represented by Dönges) ordered
his deportation from South Africa under section 9 of the Immigration Act 22 of 1913.
3. Jaga challenged the deportation order, arguing that the Act only allowed the deportation
of prohibited immigrants who had entered South Africa unlawfully.