6 intention of the legislature as ascertained from the language, scope and purpose of the enactment as a whole and the statutory requirement in particular (see Nkisimane and Others v Santam Insurance Co Ltd 1978 (2) SA 430 (A) at 434 A - B). Legalistic debates as to whether the enactment is peremptory (imperative, absolute, mandatory, a categorical imperative) or merely directory; whether 'shall' should be read as 'may'; whether strict as opposed to substantial compliance is required; whether delegated legislation dealing with formal requirements are of legislative or administrative nature, etc may be interesting, but seldom essential to the outcome of a real case before the courts. They tell us what the outcome of the court's interpretation of the particular enactment is; they cannot tell us how to interpret. These debates have a posteriori, not a priori significance. The approach described above, identified as ' ... a trend in interpretation away from the strict legalistic to the substantive' by Van Dijkhorst J in Ex parte Mothuloe (Law Society Transvaal, Intervening) 1996 (4) SA 1131 (T) at 1138 D - E, seems to be the correct one and does away with debates of secondary importance only. [14] It seems to be clear that the object of s 105 (1A) was to inform all the ratepayers in the particular borough of the council's estimates of its income and expenditure for the next financial year, and of the amount of the assessed rates. The estimates are to be made available for inspection at the municipal office for a period of at least seven days after the publication of the notice.’8 [11] It is common cause that to date the CEO had not published the registration of the second respondent in the Gazette. Thus, this court made a finding set out in para 1 and 2 of the order above. [12] The appellant in this matter lodged an appeal to the Commission earlier this year but that appeal was not preceded by a notification by means of a publication in the Gazette. Nevertheless, the Commission decided to dismiss the appeal on the basis that the appeal was well out of time. However, in my view, the period when an appeal may be lodged will only commence once the notice is given by publication in the Gazette. 8 This passage was sited with approval in African Christian Democratic Party v Electoral Commission and Others 2006 (3) SA 305 (CC) para 25.