Stumbling at the first step? Lost opportunity in the transformation of the South African justice system?

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Pages: 160-174
• Author: Wilfried Schärf
• Date: 15 August 2019
• Published date: 15 August 2019
• Citation: 2003 Acta Juridica 160

Stumbling at the f‌irst step? Lost opportunity

in the transformation of the South African

justice system?

WILFRIED SCHÄRF* AND BOYANE TSHEHLA**

University of Cape Town

I INTRODUCTION

Countries undergoing a transition from authoritarian to less authoritar-

ian governance face momentous challenges. Meaningful democratisation

requires simultaneous fundamental change across a wide swathe of state

institutions. As one form of state-control and social alignment is being

dismantled, the new paradigm is being introduced. In the South African

experience, apart from the structural amalgamation of 11 political entities

into one, signif‌icant attitudinal and behavioural changes were expected

from most of apartheid’s civil servants at the dawn of democracy.

Human rights required that more care be taken in balancing competing

needs. Not only do institutions consequently battle with the introduction

of a new paradigm but they are required to deliver to the community at

large in terms of this model and most importantly, be perceived to be

doing so on a basis that improves the benef‌its for local communities.

Transformation is, f‌irst, about managing the structural change within

institutions, secondly, about local communities’ perception of the benef‌its

they derive, and, thirdly, their understanding of the processes that deliver

such benef‌its. Transformation is therefore, structural change, delivery of

more appropriate services to the community and education about the

processes taking place. Transformation cannot be seen to have taken place

if institutional change has occurred but the broader community experi-

ences negligible improvement.

This indeed is the core dilemma for a new government facing the need

to transform and deliver. Transforminglarge state institutions is by its very

nature a long-term project whose benef‌its are only perceptible within a

decade or more of the process having started. Communities which have

fought long and hard for regime-change might have to suffer longer, even

experience deterioration of services, while the institutional and policy-

change road is walked, sometimes haltingly. Is this feasible or is the price

too high for the newly enfranchised communities? What do the

*B Com LLB (Wits) M SocSc (Criminology) (UCT), Associate Professor of Criminology and

Director of the Institute of Criminology, University of Cape Town.

**B Proc (North) LLM (UCT), Assistant Lecturer, Department of Criminal Justice,

University of Cape Town.

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2003 Acta Juridica 160

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