Justice In South Africa

Over the last fifteen years, the South African postapartheid Transitional Amnesty Process – implemented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) – has been extensively analyzed by scholars and commentators from around the world and from almost every discipline of human sciences. Lawyers, historians, anthropologists and sociologists as well as political scientists have tried to understand, describe and comment on the ‘shocking’ South African political decision to give amnesty to all who fully disclosed their politically motivated crimes committed during the apartheid era. Investigating the postapartheid transition in South Africa from a multidisciplinary perspective involving constitutional law, criminal law, history and political science, this book explores the overlapping of the postapartheid constitution-making process and the Amnesty Process for political violence under apartheid and shows that both processes represent important innovations in terms of constitutional law and transitional justice systems. Both processes contain mechanisms that encourage the constitution of the unity of the political body while ensuring future solidity and stability. From this perspective, the book deals with the importance of several concepts such as truth about the past, publicly shared memory, unity of the political body and public confession.

For most people in rural South Africa, traditional justice mechanisms provide the only feasible means of accessing any form of justice. These mechanisms are popularly associated with restorative justice, reconciliation and harmony in rural communities. Yet, this ethnographic study grounded in the political economy of rural South Africa reveals how historical conditions and contemporary pressures have strained these mechanisms’ ability to deliver the high normative ideals with which they are notionally linked. In places such as Msinga access to justice is made especially precarious by the reality that human insecurity – a composite of physical, social and material insecurity – is high for both ordinary people and the authorities who staff local justice forums; cooperation is low between traditional justice mechanisms and the criminal and social justice mechanisms the state is meant to provide; and competition from purportedly more effective ‘twilight institutions’, like vigilante associations, is rife. Further contradictions are presented by profoundly gendered social relations premised on delicate social trust that is closely monitored by one’s community and enforced through self-help measures like witchcraft accusations in a context in which violence is, culturally and practically, a highly plausible strategy for dispute management. These contextual considerations compel us to ask what justice we can reasonably speak of access to in such an insecure context and what solutions are viable under such volatile human conditions? The book concludes with a vision for access to justice in rural South Africa that takes seriously ordinary people’s circumstances and traditional authorities’ lived experiences as documented in this detailed study. The author proposes a cooperative governance model that would maximise the resources and capacity of both traditional and state justice apparatus for delivering the legal and social justice – namely, peace and protection from violence as well as mitigation of poverty and destitution – that rural people genuinely need.

"Administrative Justice in South Africa: An Introduction offers a clear, comprehensive and applied explanation of the principles and framework of administrative justice in South Africa. The text addresses both judicial and non-judicial means for control and enforcement, as well as procedural aspects of administrative law. Practical in its approach, the text provides valuable focus on the application of principles to case law, problem-solving methodology, and specific procedural aspects of administrative justice. This second edition is thoroughly updated, to reflect issues and legal developments within the recent period. It offers an expanded discussion of non-judicial forms of control and enforcement, including a new chapter that addresses the roles and powers of the Auditor-General and the Public Protector. The text's discussion of legal remedies in control and enforcement proceedings is expanded to include the remedies that are available to support the interventions of the Auditor-General and the Public Protector, respectively. The second edition introduces a visioning, enquiring perspective that considers the ongoing system design that is requisite to engender good, just and efficient public decision-making, and to give effect to the constitutional promise of administrative justice. The text offers a clear pedagogical framework that develops independent, critical and reflective engagement with the subject matter. A strong conceptual and enquiring approach enriches knowledge, and engages readers in an interactive, topical and challenging manner. Additional, high-value educational resources support learning and teaching, further assisting students to develop the knowledge and skills required to master their studies."--

Litigating Socio-Economic Rights in South Africa: A choice between corrective and distributive justiceby Christopher Mbazira2009ISBN: 978-0-9814124-7-4Pages: viii 273Print version: AvailableElectronic version: Free PDF available.

The Author sought to uncover the states role in eliminating its opponents during the apartheid era in South Africa.