Justice means what is fair or what is right.
The importance of rules and laws
Rules and laws enable us to live together in an organised and fair way. They help us to understand what is allowed and what is not allowed, and how to behave. Good citizens always try to obey the rules and laws. If we break them, we know that something bad may happen. For example, someone may get hurt or be treated unfairly.
When people have disagreements or when they are suspected of a crime, the justice system makes sure they are treated fairly and equally.
In the apartheid years, many people fought against the unfair government. People were often put in jail, beaten and tortured. Some were forced to leave the country. In some cases, people were killed.
The justice system was not fair to everyone. So people who disagreed with the government were not given a fair chance to defend themselves in court.
Today, the Constitution of South Africa has laws to make sure that everyone in the country is treated equally.
It states:
everyone is equal under the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law.
This means that:
everyone should have a chance for his or her case to be heard in court.
the court must treat everyone the same, regardless of whether they are poor, whether they are male or female, or whether they have a different religion or culture to most people in the court.
the same laws apply to everyone, regardless of the work they do in the country; for example, the laws apply even to court judges, the police and to the president of the country.
no person may interfere with the work of the courts, not even the president.
Watch the video below to learn about the Rule of Law.
COMPULSORY ACTIVITY - DISCUSSION
Today we are looking at what we call a HIGHER ORDER QUESTION. This means that you really have to think and apply your mind to all of the details. It is not just a case of remembering information but in thinking about what you have learned and applying it to the information.
With one other person discuss the following situation and back up your answer by referring to what you read above.
"Jabu is a police officer. The area in which he works is full of gangs who commit crimes all the time. It is difficult to catch these guys committing a crime, even though they know they are guilty. But today Jabu was lucky. Though he did not catch George committing one of his usual crimes of selling drugs or stealing cars, he caught the gang leader George speeding at 180km an hour on the highway. So he was able to arrest him. Up until today he had no evidence on which to arrest George. Since it was not Georges first arrest for excessive speeding he believed he would get six months in prison as this was the third time.
But to his absolute dismay, within 24 hours, George was back on the streets causing trouble again. One of his friends (another gang member) knew the judge who heard his case, and paid him to give a "not guilty" verdict."
1. Was this situation fair according to the constitution? Base your answer on the laws in the constitution mentioned above. Take notes so that you can present your answer to the class. Be sure to listen carefully to answers that give a different angle to yours so that you can learn from others.
2. When you are finished reporting back you are going to write a paragraph in your book summarising your answer.
EXTENSION ACTVITIES
If you have completed all the above, then you can complete this Educandy Activity OR the Quiz below that.