Towards resuscitating the ailing public violence jurisprudence – lessons from history

JurisdictionSouth Africa
Published date24 May 2019
Pages23-37
AuthorKhulekani Khumalo
Citation(2017) 30 SACJ 23
Date24 May 2019
Towards resuscitating the ailing
public violence jurisprudence –
lessons from history
KHULEKANI KHUMALO*
ABSTRACT
The recent spate of protests organ ised under the #Fees MustFall camp aign
have not only exposed all that is w rong with the existing pol itical and
economic order, but also the shortcomings of t he crime of public violence
in achieving its object ive of maintaining pe ace and order as well as to
afford protection again st the invasion of the rights of other s during violent
protests. Fortunately, the cri me of public violence has a long developmental
history from which le ssons could be drawn as to how these shor tcomings
and other challenges facing the c rime can best be resolved or remed ied.
Therefore, the purpose of t his article is to ventu re into the history of the
crime of public violence in order to dr aw lessons which could help identify
and possibly remedy the chal lenges facing the crime of public violence.
After all, t hese challenges threaten t he efcacy of the crime a nd, in turn,
cause the public violence jurispr udence to be ailing and to be in need of
being resuscitated. U ltimately, it is introspection of thi s nature that wil l
ensure the resuscit ation of public violence jurisprudence and the consequent
realisation of the intere sts sought to be protected by thi s crime.
1 Introduction
The recent spate of protests organised under the #Fee sMustFall
campaign have not only exposed all that is wrong with the ex isting
political and economic order, but also the shortcomings of the cri me
of public violence in achieving its objective of maintaini ng peace and
order as well as to afford protection against the invasion of the r ights
of others during violent protests. Fortunately, the crime of public
violence has a long developmental history from which lessons could be
drawn as to how these shortcomings and other chal lenges facing the
crime can best be resolved or remedied. T herefore, the purpose of this
article is to venture into the histor y of the crime of public violence in
order to draw lessons which could help identify and possibly remedy
the challenges facing the crime of public violence. After al l, these
challenges threaten the efcacy of t he crime and, in tur n, causes the
* LLB Cum Laude L LM Cum Laude (UK ZN), Lect urer, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
23
(2017) 30 SACJ 23
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