Non-State Ordering in the Post-Apartheid South Africa. A Study of Some Structures of Non-State Ordering the Western Cape Province.

Source: (2001) Research dissertation presented for the approval of Senate in fulfilment of part of the requirements for the degree Master of Laws in approved courses and a minor dissertation. Deptment of Law. University of Cape Town. Downloaded 8 July 03.

This paper represents a research dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Laws. As the author, Boyane John Tshehla, points out, social ordering is an integral part of human life. There are two main ways of ordering society: (a) formal (state) ordering; and (b) informal (non-state) ordering. Within each, there are various modes or types of ordering. In South Africa, under apartheid, the style of formal ordering was intended to protect whites and to control and exclude blacks. Blacks, in response, adapted their pre-modern system to urban conditions as a way of ordering their lives. Tshehla contends that, years after the dismantling of apartheid, the post-apartheid South African government has yet to make the formal legal system truly accessible to the majority of South Africans. Correspondingly, many of the non-state ordering structures, including informal justice structures, have become weaker. With all of this in mind, Tshehla covers a number of matters in the interest of arguing for the strengthening of non-state structures of order within local communities: access to justice for black South Africans in urban areas; legal pluralism; community policing; street committees and peace committees; dispute resolution; pragmatic factors that affect structures of order; and the role of the South African Law Commission in formal and informal structures of justice.