Section 10: Parties to proceedings

10. Parties to proceedings (1) (a) The Government shall publish a list specifying the several Government Departments which are authorised departments for the purposes of this Act, and the name and address for service of the person who is, or is acting for the purposes of this Act as, the attorney for each such department. (b) A document purporting to be a copy of a list published under this section in the Gazette shall, in any legal proceedings, be received as evidence for the purposes of establishing which departments are authorised departments for the purposes of this Act, and what person is, or is acting for the purposes of this Act as, the attorney for any department. (2) Civil proceedings by the State may be instituted either by an authorised Government Department in its own name or by the Attorney-General. (3) Civil proceedings against the State shall be instituted against the appropriate authorised department, or, if none of the authorised departments is appropriate or the person instituting the proceedings has a reasonable doubt whether any and, if so, which, of those departments is appropriate, against the Attorney-General. (4) (a) Where civil proceedings against the State are instituted against the Attorney-General, an application may, at any stage of the proceedings, be made to the Court by or on behalf of the Attorney-General to have an authorised department specified in the application substituted for him as defendant to the proceedings, and where any such proceedings are brought against an authorised department, an application may, at any stage of the proceedings, be made to the Court on behalf of that department to have the Attorney-General or an authorised department specified in the application substituted for the applicant, as the defendant to the proceedings. (b) On any such application, the Court may, if it thinks fit, make an order granting the application on such terms as the Court thinks just, and, on such an order being made, the proceedings shall continue as if they had been commenced against the Department specified in the order, or, as the case may require, against the Attorney-General. (5) No proceedings instituted in accordance with this Part by or against the Attorney-General or an authorised department shall abate or be affected by a change in the person holding the office of Attorney-General or in the person or body of persons constituting the department. [S. 10 amended by Act 48 of 1991.]