In the week of Nelson Mandela’s birthday the Mandela Institute at Wits School of Law hosted the first international conference in South Africa (SA) on court-annexed mediation entitled ‘Court-annexed mediation: Successes, challenges and possibilities’. South Africa has recently adopted a pilot project on court-annexed mediation in a number of magistrates’ courts. The purpose of the conference was to analyse the mediation rules pertaining to the project, its successes, failures and possibilities.
Speakers at the conference included the Deputy Chief Justice of Namibia, judges from SA and Uganda, heads of law societies, state attorneys, advocates, academics and pioneers in mediation from Nigeria, England and Australia.
The conference organisers welcomed the rules as a move in a positive direction by the executive, but concluded that major changes were needed in order for the rules to be more effective. The changes suggested include:
The SA court system denies access to justice to millions of South Africans who cannot afford litigation and it is time consuming. Delaying access to courts would in effect deny access to justice. Not only does mediation save time and money it also enables parties to determine the outcome of their own disputes. In essence it gives parties self-ownership of the outcome of their disputes and ultimately dignity. It is essential that the rules be amended to give effect to the constitutional values and the protection of the fundamental rights of all South Africans.
Dr Mohamed Alli Chicktay, Wits School of Law
This article was first published in De Rebus in 2016 (Oct) DR 12.