Answer to Question #207497 in Law for Kayla

Question

1. How can the principles of Ubuntu be applied in the criminal justice system to ensure justice for victims?

2. Provide a definition of what Justice means to you , provide an example of a South African law that you find unjust and which you would like to change. How would you like to change it?

Answer 1

Ubuntu means love, reality, peace, and feeling happy. Ubuntu is a human being's soul, the spiritual spark of the goodness of every being. African cultures have been guided by the universal ideals of Ubuntu since the dawn of time. Ubuntu was and continues to be the guiding principle how one connects with other human beings, nature or the Creator. In Africa and around the world, Ubuntu is extremely important because the world needs a shared human guiding principle. Ubuntu is at the heart of the ideals of society and without Ubuntu society has greed, egotism, immorality, and pride. According to Ubuntu, people should follow a simple statement of 'being self through others'.'buntu ngumuntu ngabantu' is written in the Zulu language of Africa that means 'I am because of who we all are’. In the Criminal Justice system, every victim should be treated with values of humanities such as respect, care, compassion, love, solidarity, sharing, reconciliation, and reciprocity. When criminal or victim is treated with such values of Ubuntu, it has been said that they had ensured justice to humanity of the world.

 

Justice can be defined as a system that rewards those that contribute the most to society and attempts to prevent harm. The current BEE law is unjust because:

1.     Racial categorization remains a criteria.

2.     It benefits only a very few of who were disadvantaged in the past.

3.     the cost to the economy is disproportionate to the benefit.

4.     white people are penalized indiscriminately, there is no regard for how much they may or may not have benefited from apartheid as individuals.

5.     The beneficiaries may or may not be in need of empowerment. Very often it makes the wealthy even wealthier, some of whom may not have even lived in South Africa during Apartheid.

I would replace it with a super tax on the rich to pay for additional educational programs and small business development programs aimed at poor communities.