@article{Perumalsamy_2019, title={The Life and Times of Textualism in South Africa}, volume={22}, url={https://perjournal.co.za/article/view/7418}, DOI={10.17159/1727-3781/2019/v22i0a7418}, abstractNote={<div> <div style="font-size: small; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #222222; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: #ffffff; font-variant-ligatures: normal;"> <p>This paper analyses the dominant approaches to statutory interpretation through a historical lens. It argues that for most of South Africa’s history the methods of interpretation were twisted in order to give effect to the intentions of the legislature. This approach to interpretation has now been discarded into the waste bin of history, and intentionalism has been replaced with contextualism. Or so we are told. The judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal in <em>Natal Joint Municipal Pension Fund v Endumeni Municipality </em>2012 4 SA 593 (SCA) has been hailed as the new, settled approach to interpretation, with the Constitutional Court endorsing <em>Endumeni </em>on numerous occasions. But it appears from both the judgments of the Constitutional Court and those of other Courts that intentionalism is not yet dead. This paper argues that the reason for this is because <em>Endumeni </em>has not provided clarity to the process of interpretation that it proclaims to do.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=C4ZqO54AAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="/public/site/images/bontle-1813/GS31.png"></a></p> </div> </div>}, journal={Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal}, author={Perumalsamy, Kessler}, year={2019}, month={Nov.}, pages={1–28} }