Charting progress, mapping the future

This report provides a detailed exploration of restorative justice (RJ) projects across several South African provinces, including the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, and Western Cape. It examines the implementation of Victim-Offender Conferences (VOCs) and Family Group Conferences (FGCs) across government departments, civil society organizations, and traditional authorities.

• The National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Reintegration of Offenders (NICRO) is identified as the largest and most organized civil society organization practicing restorative justice in South Africa, with offices in all nine provinces.
• A recurring obstacle across multiple provinces and sectors is the severe lack of consistent funding, which prevents smaller organizations from maintaining their restorative justice programs and limits the ability of government probation officers to implement conferences regularly.
• There is a significant gap in knowledge and understanding of restorative justice among formal justice system officials, including magistrates and prosecutors, which leads to fewer referrals for diversion programs.
• Traditional authorities in provinces like the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal utilize conflict resolution methods that align with restorative justice principles, focusing on rebuilding community ties and restitution rather than punishment, though they often lack formal cooperation from the judicial system.
• In Gauteng, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) has used restorative justice to address conflicts related to apartheid-related violence, specifically for participants of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) who felt the need to meet with one another.
• The Justice and Women (JAW) organization in KwaZulu-Natal has successfully applied a mediation model to maintenance disputes, achieving settlement in 80% of 70 mediated cases, with 100% compliance on orders made.
• The Community Peace Programme (CPP) in the Western Cape employs a community-owned model of 'Peace Gatherings' to resolve disputes, reporting that only 2% of participants fail to reach an agreement across 11,000 gatherings conducted since 2000.
• In the Western Cape, there is a notable trend of integrating restorative justice into prison rehabilitation through the work of chaplains and church ministers, though some observers warn this may lead to the practice being perceived as exclusively religious.
• The Department of Social Development in Mpumalanga's Gert Sibande District implemented a 'credit points system' for diversion programs to provide a framework for planning activities in resource-limited rural areas.
• The Greytown Magistrates' Court in KwaZulu-Natal utilizes pre-trial victim-offender mediation to save court time and costs, resolving approximately 15–20 cases per month in a manner that prevents them from proceeding to trial.

APA

Skelton, A., & Batley, M. (n.d.). Charting progress, mapping the future. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/CHARTINGPROGCHAP4.PDF

Chicago

Skelton, Ann, and Mike Batley. Charting progress, mapping the future. Institute for Security Studies, n.d. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/CHARTINGPROGCHAP4.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Skelton |first1=Ann |last2=Batley |first2=Mike |title=Charting progress, mapping the future |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/CHARTINGPROGCHAP4.PDF |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{skeltonndcharting, author = {Skelton, Ann and Batley, Mike}, title = {{Charting progress, mapping the future}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/CHARTINGPROGCHAP4.PDF}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }