ABSTRACT
South African history reverberates with stories of violence against children in the criminal justice system from colonial times and through the apartheid years. This chapter traces the history of corporal punishment and detention of children, and shows how South Africa’s transition to democracy created opportunities for changes to the law through both legislation and litigation. The Constitutional Court abolished corporal punishment as a sentence, has highlighted the harm that detention causes, and has clearly stated that detention is to be used as a last resort and only for the shortest appropriate period of time. The positive effects of law and practice reform is evident. The system has largely been reoriented towards a less punitive system that emphasises diversion, pre-trial release and non-custodial sentencing. Statistics show a dramatic downward trend in the imprisonment of children. However, children continue to be detained in child and youth care centres, where there have been incidents of abuse and neglect. The chapter acknowledges South Africa’s ratification of OPCAT in March 2019, and calls for immediate action to establish appropriate oversight mechanisms for centres detaining children.
