Search

Critical scholarship on transitional justice, in Africa and globally, has drawn attention both to limits of liberalism and legalism (such as inattention to structural injustices) and to normatively more expansive – transformative, and even revolutionary – approaches to justice. Focusing particularly on South Africa, this debate piece considers the roles of liberal property relations and conceptions of the rule of law in producing and maintaining injustices related to land and property in (post-)transitional societies in Africa and beyond. Moreover, the extent to which transitional justice might contribute to revolutionary aspirations of overcoming capitalist social and economic relations (as espoused, at least rhetorically, by liberation movements throughout Africa) is considered. It is suggested that while this is unlikely, non-reformist reforms offer one avenue by which more expansive (transformative or revolutionary) goals might be pursued, in part, in and through transitional justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores challenges associated with conducting research on social movements in South Africa (and beyond). Scholarship and commentary on South African social movements is a contentious and contested field. This article reflects particularly on carrying out research relating to land and housing rights and on the relationships between scholars, activists and activist-scholars working in this area. There is a particular difficulty with regard to identifying and analysing the political biases present within various opposing accounts of the social movements taking action on land and housing issues and their relationships to other actors. The article argues that there are three main pitfalls which researchers should attempt to avoid. First there is the danger of taking the claims made by social movements and by their academic advocates at face value. The second pitfall, on the other hand, relates to the danger of dismissing the praxis of these social movements altogether. The third danger surrounds the risk of the debates and disagreements between academics and commentators overshadowing discussion of the issues upon which movements work. The article suggests that it is necessary to apply a critical lens to all knowledge produced about social movements taking action on land and housing issues in South Africa and, consequently, a number of questions remain unresolved when attempting to put together an accurate picture of the relationships between and praxis of groups and organisations working in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a critique of the scope of existing models of transitional justice, which focus on legal and quasi-legal remedies for a narrow set of civil and political rights violations. The article highlights the significance of structural violence in producing and reproducing violations of human rights, particularly of socioeconomic rights. There is a need to utilize a different toolkit and a different understanding of human rights from that typically employed in transitional justice in order to remedy structural violations of human rights. Focusing on a case study of land inequalities in postapartheid South Africa, the potential for transformative (rather than transitional) justice in postconflict and postauthoritarian contexts is discussed. The article outlines a definition of transformative justice, relevant actors, and relationships for such an agenda and discusses the kinds of strategies that promise a more transformative approach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]