Class actions were first recognized in South Africa more than twenty-five years ago in the Interim Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993 (“Interim Constitution”). However, it is nevertheless an area of South African law that continues to remain largely unregulated by statute or court rules. Legislative inaction has compelled the judiciary to step in and, through case law, to develop a structure for the adjudication of class actions. South African superior courts should be commended for developing the existing framework within which class actions operate and for giving substance to what could otherwise conceivably have been perceived as an illusory dispute resolution mechanism. The role that our courts have played in this regard is important, especially in view of the increase in recent times in the incidence of class actions.