The Centre for Criminal Justice (CCJ) was inaugurated in February 1990, it functioned until September 1990 with an entirely part-time staff seconded from the School of Law of the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Prof AS Mathews was the first Director of the Centre. It was constituted as a semi-autonomous research unit associated with the School of Law, but functioning independently, with the capacity to maintain a separate existence.

Early Work of the Centre

When the Centre was founded it was situated at the epicenter of the conflict in Natal. The conflict put enormous pressure on the criminal justice system, which first faltered and then foundered under the strain.

From its inception in 1990 the Centre decided to focus on:

  • The causes of, and reasons for, the initial collapse of criminal justice during the political conflict;
  • The reforms that were immediately necessary to restore the system to some kind of effectiveness; and
  • The broad changes to criminal justice that was necessary to enable the system to adapt to and meet the challenges of the new South Africa.

Because of its limited staff establishment a decision was taken to focus primarily on one aspect, a major one, of criminal justice and that is the policing of the conflict. Policing was chosen because there was obvious and wide spread dissatisfaction with it, because it represents the communities first point of contact with the criminal justice system and because serious failures in policing are likely to contaminate the entire systems on various aspects of the criminal justice system.

In the first four years of its existence the Centre produced reports on the policing of the conflict in the greater Pietermaritzburg region. These reports were based on detailed case studies, all carefully verified as fully as possible and carried out personally by Centre staff. These studies disclosed a number of serious problems in policing of which the following findings were noted:

  • Much of the policing of the conflict between the contending groups was partisan and police conduct differed markedly depending on whether a favoured or disfavoured group was involved;
  • Police involvement in the conflict sometime took on a criminal nature either in the active sense (joining in attacks on disfavoured groups) or in the negative sense (failing to assist victims of unlawful attacks);
  • Police assault upon, or torture of, suspects was a common phenomenon;
  • Police investigation was often inefficient and unprofessional; and
  • The police force was understaffed and racist attitudes among its members were very common.

Group of elderly women The Centre, while obviously alarmed at the findings, resolved to take a constructive and remedial approach to them and to seek solutions rather than simply indict those responsible. The outcome was a national conference on Policing in the New South Africa. The Centre still embraces the same approach in its community outreach programme.

CCJ Focus Change

The changing political order from apartheid to democracy, and the consequent changes in societal needs, saw CCJ focus on effecting change through outreach and development work at the local level.

The organisation embarked on activities to address the needs of disadvantaged communities who were not able to exercise their legal rights and were denied proper access to the criminal justice system. These activities culminated in the Community Outreach Programme, through which support centres were established to assist community members with access to the legal system and the protection and promotion of their rights.

This programme targets women and children living in rural areas who are most vulnerable and susceptible to violence and abuse. The research conducted by CCJ before the programme was initiated revealed that rural women and community members in rural in general experienced difficulty in dealing with the criminal justice system. They expressed the feeling that they are not treated justly or with due sensitivity when reporting such crimes. This programme now forms the core of CCJ's activities.

The Centre for Criminal Justice vision was to direct its skills in the area of criminal justice towards the understanding and attempted solution of local community problems. Monitoring and evaluating the performance the criminal justice system in the KwaZulu Natal communities and focusing on the challenges, which a democratic South Africa is presenting to the criminal justice system.

The main focus of CCJ continues to be effecting change in the criminal justice system through the Community Outreach Programme, but in future the organisation will work to strengthen its relationship with communities, as well as the institutions within the legal system. This will involve the continued training of para-legals on issues of human rights and victim-care, as well as increased education and awareness campaigns among ordinary citizens.