What is Justice
Justice is the ethical, philosophical idea that people are to be treated impartially, fairly, properly, and reasonably by the law and by arbiters of the law, that laws are to ensure that no harm befalls another, and that, where harm is alleged, a remedial action is taken; both the accuser and the accused receive a fair judgement/punishment.
Negligence of the Justice System
How many reported crimes result in convictions? The answer would tell us how well the South African Criminal Justice System (CJS) functions. The current information provided by the annual reports of the police, justice department and correctional services don’t provide the answer. This is because each department records different information in ways that cannot be linked. Research by the South African Law Commission (SALC) in 2001, which tracked cases from the moment they were recorded by the police through the courts to measure conviction rates, concluded that ‘crime pays’. This research found that for every 100 violent crimes (murder, rape, and aggravated robbery) reported to the police, in only six cases had the perpetrators been convicted after more than two years.
A Victim who has been Failed by the Justice System
On the 7th of February 2020, eight-year-old Tazne van Wyk disappeared without a trace near her home in Elsies River, Cape Town. Almost two weeks later, her body was found in a storm water drain near the N1 outside Worcester. The man who had allegedly abducted and murdered the young girl had been incarcerated before for another child’s murder; he had served a 10-year sentence but was released on parole in October 2016. At Tazne’s funeral, Bheki Cele, minister of police, addressed the mourners at her funeral that he admitted that the Criminal Justice System has failed the young girl and her family. A day before Tazne’s disappearance, the Department of Correctional Services had declared the man to be an absconder (because of his high-crime criminal record) after the department was unsuccessful in trying to track him down in the western Cape. It is sickening that someone with such a criminal record can be released on parole, and it is a clear example of how the Criminal Justice System fails the victims (and survivors) of crime in South Africa.
How is the Justice System Manipulated
Corruption has a direct impact on the validity of human rights, largely because of two reasons. On one side, corruption deprives societies of important resources that could be used for basic needs, such as public health, education, infrastructure, or security. The OECD has indicated that the cost of corruption, in its different modalities, constitutes more than 5% of the global GDP. On another side, corruption has direct damaging consequences in general on the functioning of state institutions.
Judicial and administrative mechanisms should be established and strengthened where necessary to enable victims to obtain redress through formal or informal procedures that are expeditious, fair, inexpensive, and accessible. Victims should be informed of their rights in seeking redress through such mechanisms.
