ISSN: 1996-2118
Affiliations: Stellenbosch University
Source: South African Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 30 Issue 1, p. 110 – 121
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ISSN: 1996-2118
Affiliations: University of South Africa (Unisa)
Source: South African Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 30 Issue 1, p. 96 – 110
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ISSN: 1996-2118
Affiliations: North-West University
Source: South African Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 30 Issue 1, p. 85 – 96
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ISSN: 1996-2118
Affiliations: Department of Criminal and Procedural Law, Unisa
Source: South African Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 30 Issue 1, p. 72 – 85
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ISSN: 1996-2118
Affiliations: Doctoral Candidate, Stellenbosch University
Source: South African Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 30 Issue 1, p. 38 – 71
In post-conflict societies, the politics of apology is increasingly and heavily relied on for justice, accountability and reconciliation to be realised. The reason for this approach is to demand a public apology from perpetrators for their mass atrocities as a sign of acceptance of responsibility. There are a number of features of this form of politics of apology applied by Gacaca courts that will be explored in light of retributive and restorative justice. Given that confession, guilty plea, repentance and apology were applied as a threshold requirement in genocide trials, this paper will critically analyse their legal consequences in light of the question whether fair trial principles should have been applied with respect to those accused who were unwilling to come forward, confess and apologise. After contextualisation and assessment of the purpose of the politics of apology in post-genocide Rwanda, the paper concludes that the politics of apology was particularly applied as a disguised attempt to allocate collective guilt to the Hutu as a group and that collective guilt has the potential to place the Hutu population in a vulnerable position within post-genocide politics. With retributive justice, the Gacaca courts served to ensure that Hutus did not escape revenge but did little to foster reconciliation.
ISSN: 1996-2118
Affiliations: Lecturer, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Source: South African Journal of Criminal Justice, Volume 30 Issue 1, p. 23 – 37
The recent spate of protests organised under the #FeesMustFall campaign have not only exposed all that is wrong with the existing political and economic order, but also the shortcomings of the crime of public violence in achieving its objective of maintaining peace and order as well as to afford protection against the invasion of the rights 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 challenges facing the crime can best be resolved or remedied. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to venture into the history 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 all, these challenges threaten the effcacy of the crime and, in turn, cause the public violence jurisprudence to be ailing and to be in need of being resuscitated. Ultimately, it is introspection of this nature that will ensure the resuscitation of public violence jurisprudence and the consequent realisation of the interests sought to be protected by this crime.