Upholding President Thabo Mbeki's decision to dismiss Billy Masetlha as the head of the National Intelligence Agency, a majority of the court held that, unlike legality and rationality, procedural fairness was not a requirement for the lawful exercise of the President's powers of appointment and dismissal, the exercise of which constituted executive rather than administrative action.

Billy Masetlha, the director-general of the National Intelligence Agency, was suspended from his office in October 2005 pending the outcome of a disciplinary probe into claims of misconduct.

[2] His difficulties at the National Intelligence Agency were widely believed to be related to an ongoing factional political battle between Mbeki and his former deputy, Jacob Zuma.

[3] In March 2007, Masetlha was granted leave to appeal du Plessis's decision in the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

[4] In a judgment written by Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, the majority refused Masetlha's appeal but ordered the President to pay him all remuneration and benefits that would have been due to him had he completed his three-year term in office.

The substantive contribution of the judgment was its discussion of the President's power to appoint and dismiss heads of the National Intelligence Agency.

As Moseneke wrote, "The power and indeed obligation of the President to appoint the head of an intelligence service is not sourced from a private law relationship.

Importantly, as an executive power, it is not constrained by the requirements of procedural fairness, which apply instead to the review of administrative action.