FRONEMAN J that may, however, legitimately be assessed in determining the primary wrongfulness of the conduct of the state, through its officials, in a delictual action based on direct liability. Wrongfulness in delict [117] The development of wrongfulness as a criterion for determining the boundaries of delictual liability found its primary input in Minister van Polisie v Ewels.40 In that case the then Appellate Division found that our law had reached the stage of development where an omission is regarded as unlawful conduct when the circumstances of the case are of a nature that the legal convictions of the community demand that the omission should be considered wrongful.41 This open-ended general principle has since evolved into the general criterion for establishing wrongfulness in all cases, not only in omission cases.42 40 1975 (3) SA 590 (A) (Ewels). 41 Id at 597A-C. 42 See Administrateur, Natal v Trust Bank van Afrika Bpk 1979 (3) SA 824 (A) at 833A (Administrateur, Natal); Minister of Safety and Security v Van Duivenboden 2002 (6) SA 431 (SCA) (Van Duivenboden) at para 12; Gouda Boerdery BK v Transnet 2005 (5) SA 490 (SCA) (Gouda) at para 12; Two Oceans above n 36 at paras 10-2; Stewart and Another v Botha and Another 2008 (6) SA 310 (SCA) at para 7; McIntosh v Premier, Kwazulu-Natal and Another 2008 (6) SA 1 (SCA) at para 12; Brooks v Minister of Safety and Security 2009 (2) SA 94 (SCA) at para 5; Fourway Haulage SA (Pty) Ltd v SA National Roads Agency Ltd 2009 (2) SA 150 (SCA) (Fourway Haulage) at para 12; and Freddy Hirsch Group (Pty) Ltd v Chickenland (Pty) Ltd 2011 (4) SA 276 (SCA) at para 38. See also Du Bois ―Getting Wrongfulness Right: a Ciceronian Attempt‖ in Scott & Visser (eds) Developing Delict: Essays in Honour of Robert Feenstra (Juta, Cape Town 2000); Fagan ―Rethinking Wrongfulness in the Law of Delict‖ (2005) 122 SALJ 90; Du Bois ―State Liability in South Africa: A Constitutional Remix‖ above n 2; and Price ―The Impact of the Bill of Rights on State Delictual Liability for Negligence in South Africa‖, paper presented at the ‗Obligations V Conference: Rights and Private Law‘, St Anne‘s College, Oxford University (2010). 47