NGCOBO J issue had given rise to legal uncertainty. It was the need to avoid legal uncertainty which was the basis upon which this Court decided to deal with the issue. This reasoning was endorsed in Zondi55 in the context of section 172(2). [62] Similar reasoning is to be found in the Ordinary Court Martial56 case where Langa CJ reasoned as follows: “The answer to that question depends upon a proper interpretation of section 172(2). The subsection does not expressly provide that this Court is obliged to determine such appeals or matters which come for confirmation. It is clear that the function of the confirmation and appeal proceedings provided for in section 172(2) and regulated by Rule 15 is to provide certainty in circumstances where a High Court has declared a provision of an Act of Parliament (or conduct of the President) to be constitutionally invalid and that generally, therefore, this Court will be required to hear and determine such proceedings.” (My emphasis.) [63] This message strongly suggests that the only circumstances in which a court may not deal substantively with an application for confirmation is where no uncertainty will arise from the court’s not doing so. The Ordinary Court Martial case is not authority for a general discretion as to whether to confirm or not; only a limited one where the provision has been repealed. That this is the rationale of the Ordinary Court Martial case becomes more plain when one reads the test for mootness which is narrower than mootness in other contexts. The Court said “where the relevant legislative provision has been repealed after the High Court has made the order of 55 Zondi v MEC for Traditional and Local Government Affairs and Others [2004] ZACC 19; 2005 (3) SA 589 (CC); 2005 (4) BCLR 347 (CC) at para 35 56 Above n 51 at para 14. 33