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110 S. African L.J. 340 (1993)
Stare Decisis and Magistrates' Lib: A Reply to Professor Kerr

handle is hein.journals/soaf110 and id is 352 raw text is: 340 THE SOUTH AFRICAN LAW JOURNAL extraordinary memory and a wide knowledge of modern history and current affairs. He leaves his wife Agnes, his son Paul and his daughter Ingrid. We extend to them our heartfelt sympathy. He will be sorely missed. STARE DECISIS AND MAGISTRATES' LIB: A REPLY TO PROFESSOR KERR MERVYN DENDY Senior Lecturer in Law, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 1 May a magistrate disregard a decision of the Supreme Court? Is a magistrate obliged to follow the ratio decidendi of a case decided by a provincial or local division of the Supreme Court other than the division within whose area ofjurisdiction the seat of his own court lies? (This question presupposes, of course, that there is no governing Appellate Division (AD) ratio decidendi and no relevant decision by the provincial or local division of his own area, for it is trite that the magistrate will then be bound to follow the precedent in question, and recourse to cases decided by provincial or local divisions in other areas will be both unnecessary and improper; it will not then matter that the decision of the division of his area is that of a single judge and the decision of the division of another area is that of two or three judges. Whether this principle obliges a magistrate sitting outside the area of a local division but within the area of its 'parent' provincial division to follow a decision of the local division is considered in detail below.) Surprisingly, in view of the importance of this issue to the operation of the doctrine of stare decisis in South Africa, the matter has not yet been finally settled. Resolution of the problem has not been greatly facilitated by the available academic discourse, for those writers who have troubled to consider the question at all are at loggerheads, having adopted a variety of conflicting standpoints. Before we examine the views expressed by the academics, however, it is necessary to distinguish between two categories of magistrate. The first is the magistrate who sits outside the area ofjurisdiction of a local division but within that of its 'parent' provincial division and who is confronted with a decision of the local division. A magistrate will find himself in this position if he sits within the area of the Transvaal Provincial Division (TPD) but outside that of the Witwatersrand Local Division (WLD) and is called upon to apply a

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