ARTICLE
FINAL REPORT ON THE KZN JUSTICE AND RESTORATION PROGRAMME (JARP): AUGUST 2012
Introduction
South Africa’s history of exclusion, oppression and violence has had an enormous impact on
individuals and communities; impacting negatively on the emotional, social and economic
well-being of society. The widening gap between rich and poor, high levels of poverty,
substance abuse, unemployment and poverty; high incidence of violent crimes such as
murder, rape, car hijacking, and assault has all led to severe emotional, psychological and
physical trauma for victims and communities. The visibly high rates of both petty offences
and violent crime have a strong association with alcohol abuse, domestic violence and rape.
With South Africa still being a developmental state there is considerable restraints on the
resources that can be devoted to addressing the high rates of crime, violence and
victimization. In a fragmented and fast changing environment restorative justice (RJ)
initiatives have a potentially important role to play in terms of bridging the gap between
community and state, empowering communities and individuals and increasing tolerance
and respect.
RJ aims to ‘empower victims by providing them with a forum in which their voices are both
heard and respected’. While victim centrality is a key RJ tenet, it also seeks to bring
offenders back into the ‘loop’ by making their experiences and needs central to the justice
process.
Khulisa’s Justice and Restoration Programme (JARP) in KwaZulu-Natal, aims is to deal with
crime in a more focused and co-ordinated manner by increasing community participation in
the criminal justice system, by providing better support for victims and offenders, and
supporting offenders in reintegrating back into society.
Conclusions on evaluations
Restorative justice initiatives and programmes are not the sole responsibility of just one
role-player, stakeholder or service provider. A partnership, collaborative approach with a
myriad of community, state and non-state role-role-players is crucial to the successful
implementation of RJ values, principles, practices and policies. It is for this reason that the
involvement of families, communities, government departments, social institutions, such as
schools and spiritual organisations and traditional leaders are so important to this process.
Researchers affirm the above and emphasise that “restorative justice has its roots in a
number of indigenous cultures, embracing traditions of ‘spirituality’ and holistic healing, and
aiming to reconnect the offender with his/her environment and community”.
Final Report on the Justice and Restoration Programme (JARP) Page 3
Schools serve as one of the primary institutions of socialization and development for young
people. They build students’ intellectual capacity and shape value systems and mechanisms
for problem solving. In South Africa, and particularly within communities that are severely
affected by conflict, violence and other forms of social disorder, it is crucial that young
people learn constructive mechanisms for resolving conflict and for reducing harm. Young
people at school also need to learn the importance of taking responsibility for their actions
while at the same time developing appropriate help-seeking processes. Retribution and
repressive mechanisms for dealing with conflict and violence have not proven to be
sustainable solutions to endemic problems. What is required is new ways for young people
to understand how violence, crime and conflict are dealt with in line with the principles of RJ
and democracy. Such a programme is particularly relevant in communities characterised by
high incidence of bullying, intimidation, fist fights, theft, shootings, interpersonal violence
and rape in all areas of life of young school-going youth.
A high number of ‘diversion referrals’ was evident (2387 at 5 sites). Therefore a ‘School
Restorative Justice Programme’ is highly recommended and would go a long way towards
preventing offending in the long term. Experience with the JARP programme indicates that
young people are confronted with a range of environmental and structural risk factors
which have the potential to reinforce violent or aggressive responses to safety problems.
Some of the risk factors for children at all the JARP sites include the following: Disadvantage
and/or relative deprivation; Shortage or inappropriate mobilsation of existing social
services; Lack of family stability and appropriate role models; Ineffective parenting and
family disarray; Lack of positive role models; Pervasiveness of violence as a form of problem
solving within the home, community and schools; Access to firearms and drugs
Greater commitment on the part of the state is recommended to support and/or replicate
the programme in other provinces if the provisions of the RJ National Policy Framework are
to be realized.
One of the key features of restorative forums is that they are expected to promote
restorative outcomes such as the reparation of harm to people and relationships, the
healing of victims and the reintegration of offenders. It is recommended however that a
broader vision of ‘outcome’ be adopted by any RJ programme, and not be restricted to
merely bringing about agreement which if complied with will result in the harm caused
being repaired and the likelihood of reoffending being reduced. We need to move towards
measuring the success of RJ by reference to whether it fulfills its true potential to instill in
people caught up in social conflict the power to solve problems themselves in non-violent
ways.
This is the final report on the implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of the KZN Justice and Restoration Programme
(KZN-JARP) at six sites in KwaZulu-Natal (Phoenix, Wentworth,
Umlazi, Ixopo, Newcastle and Empangeni). No part of the
report may be reproduced without the written permission of
Khulisa Social Solutions.
Compiled by Dr Hema Hargovan*.
Funded by the
European Union
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
Restorative justice initiatives and programmes are not the sole responsibility of just one
role-player, stakeholder or service provider. A partnership, collaborative approach with a
myriad of community, state and non-state role-role-players is crucial to the successful
implementation of RJ values, principles, practices and policies. It is for this reason that the
involvement of families, communities, government departments, social institutions, such as
schools and spiritual organisations and traditional leaders are so important to this process.
Researchers affirm the above and emphasise that “restorative justice has its roots in a
number of indigenous cultures, embracing traditions of ‘spirituality’ and holistic healing, and
aiming to reconnect the offender with his/her environment and community”.
Final Report on the Justice and Restoration Programme (JARP) Page 3
Schools serve as one of the primary institutions of socialization and development for young
people. They build students’ intellectual capacity and shape value systems and mechanisms
for problem solving. In South Africa, and particularly within communities that are severely
affected by conflict, violence and other forms of social disorder, it is crucial that young
people learn constructive mechanisms for resolving conflict and for reducing harm. Young
people at school also need to learn the importance of taking responsibility for their actions
while at the same time developing appropriate help-seeking processes. Retribution and
repressive mechanisms for dealing with conflict and violence have not proven to be
sustainable solutions to endemic problems. What is required is new ways for young people
to understand how violence, crime and conflict are dealt with in line with the principles of RJ
and democracy. Such a programme is particularly relevant in communities characterised by
high incidence of bullying, intimidation, fist fights, theft, shootings, interpersonal violence
and rape in all areas of life of young school-going youth.
A high number of ‘diversion referrals’ was evident (2387 at 5 sites). Therefore a ‘School
Restorative Justice Programme’ is highly recommended and would go a long way towards
preventing offending in the long term. Experience with the JARP programme indicates that
young people are confronted with a range of environmental and structural risk factors
which have the potential to reinforce violent or aggressive responses to safety problems.
Some of the risk factors for children at all the JARP sites include the following: Disadvantage
and/or relative deprivation; Shortage or inappropriate mobilsation of existing social
services; Lack of family stability and appropriate role models; Ineffective parenting and
family disarray; Lack of positive role models; Pervasiveness of violence as a form of problem
solving within the home, community and schools; Access to firearms and drugs
Greater commitment on the part of the state is recommended to support and/or replicate
the programme in other provinces if the provisions of the RJ National Policy Framework are
to be realized.
One of the key features of restorative forums is that they are expected to promote
restorative outcomes such as the reparation of harm to people and relationships, the
healing of victims and the reintegration of offenders. It is recommended however that a
broader vision of ‘outcome’ be adopted by any RJ programme, and not be restricted to
merely bringing about agreement which if complied with will result in the harm caused
being repaired and the likelihood of reoffending being reduced. We need to move towards
measuring the success of RJ by reference to whether it fulfills its true potential to instill in
people caught up in social conflict the power to solve problems themselves in non-violent
ways.
This is the final report on the implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of the KZN Justice and Restoration Programme
(KZN-JARP) at six sites in KwaZulu-Natal (Phoenix, Wentworth,
Umlazi, Ixopo, Newcastle and Empangeni). No part of the
report may be reproduced without the written permission of
Khulisa Social Solutions.
Compiled by Dr Hema Hargovan*.
Funded by the
European Union
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