'Disturbingly inappropriate': magistrate fines man a mere R 1000 for rape of child By Tania Broughton Sunday Times Daily 28 February 2022 Available at: https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times-dailyews/2022-02-28-disturbingly- inappropriate-magistrate-fines-man-a-mere-r1000-for-rape-of-child/ (Accessed 15 March 2022). O The Independent Institute of Education (Pty) Ltd 2022 Page 11 of 22 21; 22; 23 2022 "A Kwazulu-Natal magistrate heading a sexual offences court has been flagged for giving lenient sentences to men convicted of raping and molesting children. One of her sentences - in which the accused was a given a two-year wholly suspended sentence conditional on him paying compensation of R 1000 to the victim's mother - has already been set aside by two KZN judges who ordered that he go to jail for five years. ... All were sentences imposed by veteran Pinetown Regional Court magistrate Bilkish Asmal, who it is understood has been 'rotated' out of the sexual offences court. She did not respond to an email asking for comment."Justice Minister Lamola says Legal Aid mandate will be expanded to cover land issues By Mwangi Githahu OL / Cape Argus Available at: https://www.iol.co.za/capeargusews/justice-minister-lamola-says-legal-aid- mandate-will-be-expanded-to-cover-land-issues-6f41f7b2-ff20-46da-975e-d5c63eb2572a (Accessed 15 March 2022). Cape Town - Justice and Correctional Affairs Minister Ronald Lamola has said that victims of evictions across South Africa will soon have access to Legal Aid services in a bid by the State to provide greater access to justice for all. ... "We will soon be expanding the mandate of Legal Aid South Africa to also offer legal services for land justice to the victims of evictions in the various parts of our country and to protect the most vulnerable within our society. This will happen from this financial year,' Lamola said." Both of the extracts above provide different perspectives on whether law equals justice in South Africa. It begs the question: does law always equal Justice in South Africa? Write an essay where you discuss the connections between law and justice, with particular focus on how they differ between one another. As part of your answer, you must also provide your view on whether law equals justice in South Africa or not, with substantiated reasons for your answer.RUBRIC 1 SKELETON OUTLINE In order to be awarded full marks for these elements of theessay, students need to have: The essay must include: An Introduction; Body; Conclusion; and Sub-headings and headings that are appropriately numbered and lettered [NOTE bullets are not to beused]. Students need to provide insight, in their own words, on the meaning of: o Law; and 0 Justice. Students to use a real-world example of how Law equals Justice, or where this is not apparent. Students should reference and briefly discuss the case of in re Dubs 1973 {3] SA 820 (N). 24.6 Are law and justice the same thing? Throughout the history of jurisprudence, thinkers have explored the connections between law and justice and have shown how the law has often been used unjustly. Despite this, most of us would agree that the law exists to ensure justice and that it should do so. In the West, justice has been portrayed as the blind-folded, Roman goddess Justitia, holding the scales of justice in one hand and a sword in the other. She is blind-folded because her decisions should be impartial. Her sword symbolises that effective justice is supported either by punishment (in criminal disputes), or compensation (in civil matters). Her scales indicate that both sides to a dispute should be heard and balanced against one another. But what do philosophers suggest about the legal system and therefore also justice? Read the case study on the balance between law and justice and answer the questions that follow. Figure 24.1 The Roman goddess Justitia is Lady Justice Case study The difference between law and justice In the case of In re Dube 1979 (3) SA 820 (N), Didcott J's judgment reads as follows: 'Review of a decision of a commissioner of the Department of Plural Relations and Development. The facts appear from the reasons for judgment. Judgment DIDCOTT J: If you happen to be a male "Bantu", to use the terminology still found in the legislation, you are governed by the Bantu (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act 25 of 1945 as amended from time to time. Your unemployment is not held against you if you are younger than 15, or as old as 65, or a pupil or student at an educational institution, or someone bona fide engaged in an officially approved business, trade, profession or "other remunerative activity", or a registered workseeker who has had no offer of lawful employment for 122 days. Otherwise, however, it is, and your "idleness" is beyond question. It does not matter whether you actually need work and its rewards. Perhaps your family supports you adequately and is content to carry on doing so. That does not count. The section says so in as many words. Nor apparently do any other lawful means you may be fortunate enough to have. An official who has reason to believe that you belong to the class of "idle persons" may arrest you at any time and in any place outside a special "Bantu" area. You are then brought before a commissioner of the Department of Plural Relations and Development. He calls on you to give a "good and satisfactory account" of yourself, whatever that may be. Unless you do manage to do so, he formally declares you to be an "idle person". Nobody is required to prove that you match the definition. You must prove you do not. Once you are officially "idle", all sorts of things can be done to you. Your removal to a host of places, and your detention in a variety of institutions, can be ordered. You can be banned forever from returning to the area where you were found, or from going anywhere else for that matter. although you may have lived there all your life. Whatever right to remain outside a special "Bantu' area you gained by birth, lawful residence or erstwhile employment is automatically lost. Perhaps you have never broken the law in your life, or harmed anyone, or made a nuisance of yourself by your activities or the lack of them. To complete our example, let us take that to be so It makes no difference. When the commissioner has finished with you, the papers in your case go on review to a Judge of the Supreme Court. He is expected, if everything is in order, to certify that what happened to you appears to him to have been "in accordance with justice". 464 Chapter 24 | Thinking about the law: jurisprudenceCase study (continued) The difference between law and justice The trouble is that it was not. It may have been in accordance with the legislation and, because what appears in legislation is the law, in accordance with that too. But it can hardly be said to have been "in accordance with justice" . Parliament has the power to pass the statutes it likes, and there is nothing the Courts can do about that. The result is law. But that is not always just legislation. the same as justice. The only way that Parliament can ever make legislation just is by making I have before me the case of Jabulani Sydney Dube, an "idle person" by decree. The commissioner consigned him to a farm colony for two years, and suspended the order on 35 days . condition that he either got employment within 30 days or left Durban of his own accord within Dube is 24. He lives in Lamontville with his mother. Welfare funds support him. He is not a registered workseeker. Nor has he worked for some years. He would like to, so it seems. He is, however, an epileptic who suffers from frequent fits. One has not only his word for it. The district surgeon, having examined him, says the same, and adds that he is fit for nothing but light duties. He needs constant medication, King Edward Vill Hospital gives him pills and injections regularly. The question is whether Dube is capable of being employed. If he is not, he falls outside the section altogether. That, in my opinion, is indeed the case. In the ordinary sense, he is not capable of being employed. He can tackle only special work of a sheltered kind, and none it is not ted age seems to be available. This, at any rate, is what I infer. The commissioner specifically instructed an inspector to find such employment for him. There is nothing to suggest that the inspector ducationd nowto whom succeeded, and it looks unlikely that he did. The proceedings were therefore contrary not only to justice, but to the Act as well, with profession of "cher Evensat the result that, on this occasion at least, it is possible to apply the Act and to do justice lawful empbrett Each simultaneously. The declaration stamping Dube an "idle person" is set aside. So is the consequent order for stron. It does not maze wee gas his removal to, and detention in, a farm colony. upports you adeputes arived MILNE J concurred. 5 50 in as mary wout tozoster 1. Make a list of all the absurdities contained in the Bantu (Urban Areas) Consolidation Act 25 of 1945. 2 . If this Act existed today, would it be constitutional? Didcott J (as he then was) illustrates not only the 'absurdity' of the statute in question, but also makes the point that the content thereof may be a law of the land, but that that does not necessarily imply justice. The case also shows that most of the laws enforced by the courts during apartheid were done on the basis of legal positivism. Therefore, justice is either the standard behind the law (natural law) or is found in the law itself (legal Positivism) Several philosophers describe justice in terms of that which obliges a person to do or not do something that concerns another. Supporters of natural law believe that there was law even before there were states, and that law is based on a natural right to render to each his due, that it can be known by pure reason and that that which is not right is not law. The positive theorists suggest law is the product of the state, independent of justice and that conformity is obligatory because of the need for an orderly society. The command of the sovereign power " enforced by the sovereign power's ability to impose sanctions. If you were to revise all the different Chapter 24 | Thinking about the law: jurisprudencepoints of view on law and justice that you have been exposed to, there are certain basic elements that are said to be the characteristics of law and justice. These are that: like persons should be treated alike without reference to race, ethnicity, economic status, gender or social status the judicial process should protect the needy and easily exploited classes of society justice is established in terms of just rulers and judges and proper rules that society will follow applications under one interpretation of law may be just but under another interpretation of law may be unjust