Traditional Courts in the New South Africa

I know – it’s been a long time. My only excuse is that I’ve been making the most of my time here and the past month has been full of interesting work and travels. Thanks to everyone who has continued checking the blog; I hope you enjoy these long overdue updates.

Last month, Rufus and I headed back on that same road to the Transkei that we took during my first week at the LRC. This time, however, our stop was in Qunu. Note that Qunu is pronounced with a violent click on the “Q” that (according to my Xhosa book) is produced by sucking the front of the tongue to the front of the palate and pulling it away rapidly to produce a loud popping sound (give it a try – I can’t do it!).


Qunu is the village where Nelson Mandela spent the “happiest days” of his childhood and traces his earliest memories. He describes it in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom:

The village of Qunu was situated in a narrow, grassy valley crisscrossed by clear streams, and overlooked by green hills. It consisted of no more than a few hundred people who lived in huts, known as rondavels, which were beehive-shaped structures of mud walls, with a wooden pole in the center holding up a peaked, grass roof. The floor was made of crushed ant-heap, the hard dome of excavated earth above an ant colony, and was kept smooth by smearing it regularly with fresh cow dung. The smoke from the hearth escaped through the roof, and the only opening was a low doorway one had to stoop to walk through. The rondavels were generally grouped together in a residential area that was some distance away from the maize fields. There were no roads, only paths through the grass worn away by barefooted boys and women. The women and children of the village wore blankets dyed in ocher; only the few Christians in the village wore Western-style clothing. Cattle, sheep, goats, and horses grazed together in common pastures. The land around Qunu was mostly treeless except for a cluster of poplars on a hill overlooking the village. The land itself was owned by the state. With very few exceptions, Africans at the time did not enjoy private title to land in South Africa but were tenants paying rent annually to the government. In the area, there were two small primary schools, a general store, and a dipping tank to rid the cattle of ticks and diseases.

Much of Madiba’s description remains true. The village is a cluster of rondavels surrounded by the open veld and rolling hills of the Wild Coast.

Part of Madiba’s legacy in Qunu is the Nelson Mandela Youth and Heritage Centre, the second component of the Nelson Mandela Museum. There, the LRC (with the assistance of the Transkei Land Service Organisation – TRALSO) hosted women from surrounding rural communities in a workshop on the proposed Traditional Courts Bill. The Bill attempts to reform the law to support and enhance customary courts and align them with the Constitution. It was introduced to Parliament in March 2008, but withdrawn because there was not enough time to complete the legislative and consultative procedures required by the Constitution. There was also criticism by public interest groups that the Bill failed to consult rural people and to address the problems rural women face in customary courts. The Bill will be reintroduced in 2009. For this reason, the LRC is consulting with rural women and preparing submissions and recommendations for Parliament.

As is often the case, I played a very minor role in the workshop because it was 90% in Xhosa. However, it was a remarkable experience to see women from these rural communities debating and sharing about their experiences in traditional governance. Some of the issues that arose: What should be done when there is more than one system of customary law within a court’s boundaries? Should the customary courts have a prescribed quota of women? Should people should be able to opt out of customary courts? What can be done to improve access to justice, particularly for women and in rural areas?