'Sanitised' Traditional Courts Bill unveiled

Intent on ending the furore over the Traditional Courts Bill, the Justice Ministry hopes its third try at getting Parliament to approve the law will succeed, some nine years later than planned, says a Daily Maverick report. Heavily revised in more than a year of consultation with a reference group of traditional leaders and civil society, the latest version has dropped controversial previous provisions that would have unconstitutionally reinforced a separate legal system for traditional communities and allowed penalties such as forced labour, banned in section 13 of the Constitution. Deputy Justice Minister John Jeffery described the Bill yesterday as one which would not make everyone happy, but that everyone could live with, according to the report by Marianne Merten. The 2017 version of the Bill talks of speedy and cost-effective dispute resolution and restorative justice, rather than justice and the law. Such courts will deal with theft and malicious damage to property not exceeding R5 000, assault, break-ins, trespassing and defamation. Crucially, says the DM report, this Bill allows for members of a traditional community to opt out (this needs to be communicated to the clerk of the customary court at the beginning of the process), appeals to relevant existing customary law processes, and an escalation to a High Court for review. Both the 2008 and 2012 versions of the Bill bound rural residents to customary courts whose jurisdiction effectively echoed the boundaries of apartheid bantustans.