Restorative Justice in South Africa - Can It work?

Introduction

In a society filled with crime, violence, and corruption prisons are overflowing and imprisonment often creates more hardened criminals, rather than creating rehabilitated persons. South Africa needs to adopt a less putative approach to the punishment of crimes, and restorative justice can either help achieve this or only worsen matters. In this essay I will evaluate this punishment theory with regard to case law, legislation and various implementations relating to the matter. In evaluating these, I will develop my own opinion on restorative justice and its efficacy in a South African context.

Restorative justice: background and history

The main aim of restorative justice is to involve the perpetrator, the victim and the community in the process of punishing the perpetrator in a less putative manner, and restoring the perpetrator, the victim and the community to its previous state. In the traditional South African context it is believed that evildoers must be restored to the community, rather than be punished. Hence, restorative justice stems from Ubuntu – “…the humanity of others is inextricably linked with their own humanity. Key social values of Ubuntu include group solidarity, conformity, compassion, [and] respect for human dignity, humanistic orientation and collective unity.” Restorative justice is rooted in victim-offender mediation (VOM) which began in developed countries during the 1970s, but only gained popularity in South Africa from 1992. The first initiative of VOM was facilitated by the National Institute for Crime Prevention and Reintegration of Offenders (NICRO), a non-profit organisation involved in programmes focussed on crime prevention and reintegration of offenders after their release from priso...

... middle of paper ...

...s/> (accessed 10-05-2014).

Anonymous “What is NICRO?” (15-03-2014) Western Cape Government (accessed 10-05-2014).

Child Justice Act 75 of 2008.

Dissel A Restoring the Harmony: piloting victim-offender conferencing in South Africa De Montfort University Leicester (2002).

Director of Public Prosecutions, North Gauteng v Thabethe 2011 (2) SACR 567 (SCA).

Gibson J Truth, Justice and Reconciliation: Judging the Fairness of Amnesty in South Africa (2002) 46 American Journal of Political Science 540.

Liebmann M Restorative Justice: How it works (2007) Jessica Kingsely Publishers.

S V Maluleke 2008 (1) SACR 49 (T).

S V Shilubane 2008 (1) SACR 295 (T).

S V Tabethe 2009 (2) SACR 62 (T).

Skelton & Batley Charting progress, mapping the future: restorative justice in South Africa (2006) Restorative Justice Centre.