ABSTRACT
Juvenile justice in South Africa has witnessed many changes and various inºuences have shaped the juvenile justice landscape in South Africa. Before 1652 when the Dutch Commander Jan van Riebeeck and his 90-man crew settled in South Africa, the earliest identišable representatives of South Africa’s diversity were the San and Khoekhoe people (otherwise known as the Bushmen and Hottentots or Khoikhoi). ey were residents in the southern tip of the continent for thousands of years before its written history began with the arrival of European seafarers. Other long-term inhabitants of the area now known as South Africa were the Bantu-speaking or black people who had gradually moved into the southern tip of the continent from the north many years before the arrival of the Europeans. Several di€erent ethnic groups with their own unique language, informal indigenous legal practices, and cultural practices settled in South Africa over time.
