The institution of traditional leadership continues to play a critical role in the South African
constitutional democracy as it provides a platform for meaningful participation by rural
communities. Among the important developments during the reporting period, one can cite
the following:
The recognition of indigenous community of the Khoi-San and their Institutions: The
National Traditional Affairs Bill of 2011 recognised Khoi-San community leadership
positions and provides for the functions of Khoi-San leaders and their institutions. It
seeks to establish a national framework, norms and standards to define the role of
Khoi-San leadership within the new system of democratic governance. The KhoiSan National Council in collaboration with the CONTRALESA, the organisation of
traditional leadership, played a major role in lobbying for this policy alignment.
The Seriti Commission Report on the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers
confirmed that Traditional Leaders are public office bearers and that they should be
allocated tools of trade which will resource their institutions to work better. In
compliance with this report, the Department of Traditional Affairs, House of
Traditional Leaders and CONTRALESA established a task team to draft a workbook
on tools of trade for all traditional institutions. On the 25 July 2012, the commission
report announced a salary scale for traditional leaders across the country, for Kings,
Queens, amaKhosi, and iziNduna. The recommendations of the Commission are
currently being implemented.
Extension of the mandate for traditional institutions by the DoJC is contained in the
provisions of the Traditional Courts Bill of 2012. The Bill recommends that traditional
courts be integrated into traditional councils to adjudicate over disputes in local
communities. It also provides that Traditional Councils should lead reform in the
development of customary law in furtherance of the main objective to affirm the
recognition of the traditional justice system and its values, based on restorative
justice and reconciliation and to align the structuring and functioning of traditional
courts with constitutional imperatives.
As alluded to in section 3.1.2 above, when the NCOP was conducting public hearing the Bill
was challenged by a number of NGO’s, demanding its withdrawal, while the National House
of Traditional Leaders was giving full support to the Bill. There is now already some activity
intended to test the value of certain provisions of the Bill. The Department of Correctional
Services, for instance, has initiated a programme in line with the provision of this Bill, called
Victim Offenders Dialogues in which traditional leaders play a major part in providing a
structure for community reconciliation.
3.1.7
Intensifying the fight against corruption/ tackling corruption
South Africa, in its NDP or the Vision 2030, indicates that there is a high level of corruption in
the country which could undermine the rule of law and socio-economic transformation.
However, there is a need to probe deeper into facts and perceptions in this area in order to
strengthen civil society and government interventions. Government has crafted several
pieces of legislations intended to ensure integrity of the public sector. The integrity and anticorruption regulatory framework is found in several pieces of legislation such as the PFMA,
PAIA, the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Act (PCCA), the Protected Disclosures
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