25/05/2026
The Discussion after the client was ill-advised and believed that paying R100 admission of Guilt fine has buried his problems by merely gaining his freedom.
The prosecution sometimes for stats and summarising the wheel of Justice would rather than subject Divertion programs to the first time offenders such as theft of bread, crime unjuria(insulting, swearing to the other) common assault over petty stuff etc. that moment the perpetrators is a child who has prospects of better future and or has matric or just working hard to be the first graduate in the family and the child find themselves at the wrong places at the wrong time.
The poor child stole sanitary peds, toiletry or bread because there was no food at home, that child does not deserve to have a record in their names.
Rehabilitation can happen without one tainting their status, we should guard against being the prosecutor of stats at the expense of the future generation, there are options that can be explored without ruining the positive aspirations of our brothers and sisters, son and daughter of the soil. The system can be brutal if we refuse to be broader in employing proper mechanisms to solve social illnesses.
Failure by the government to create jobs and opportunities one way or the other might perpetuate and or pave the way to criminal conduct out of compressed circumstances. Yes of course no crime is better than the other, crime is crime and the law must be applied to deter members of the society from committing it.
Be that as it may, rehabilitation does not mean punishment, how often do we see the community service as a punishment? Just parents punishment to the child, cleaning school toilets, Social workers to get involved and prevent our kids to face punishment at Bosasa, Ramotshane etc we can do better as a country and avoid such to happen.
The other day I represented a client mentioned one previous convictions of theft of a hand whatcha battery committed in 1984 when he was still a child/Teenager and he in was Just treated like a child wooden stick 4 times on his back and told to never do that. He was recently arrested 40 years later when we check the system the guy has no record in his name.
These accused persons are our children, our leaders of tomorrow and acknowledging the unfavorable living conditions the system creates to our people, we should find other ways resolving our disputes without tainting the status of the latter.
Yes of course stats are important for the work we do but the spirit of Ubuntu must also prevail.
