ABSTRACT
The healing of our wounded souls would require more than just transformation. It would require radically uprooting those processes that contribute to the dehumanisation of people. Social cohesion will remain a slogan for as long as those inequalities that are a direct result of colonisation, continue to be perpetuated. The community should therefore assist in correcting the child's behaviour or finding a solution to the challenge which that family faces. This approach is different from South Africa's current penal system, in which the focus is on punishment (removing offenders from their family and society) and corrections. The notion of wanting to correct behaviour is based on the assumption that when a person has committed a wrong, the root of that wrong lies within the individual, without taking structural challenges into consideration. South Africa has a dark past that affected people psychologically, spiritually and physically, and these aspects play a crucial role in how people behave in the present.
