Erratum: Ubuntu and the law in South Africa: Exploring and understanding the substantive content of ubuntu (South African Journal of Philosophy (2017) 36:2 (239-251) DOI: 10.1080/02580136.2016.1222807)

On page 246: The Constitutional Court in S v Makwanyane, a decision dealing with the constitutionality of the death penalty, made it clear that ubuntu is part and parcel of the South African legal system. The Court held that the legacy of the past and gross human rights violations must be addressed through the Constitution and human rights culture, including on the retribution ought not to be given undue weight in the balancing process. The Constitution is premised on the assumption that ours will be a constitutional State founded on the recognition of human rights. The concluding provision on National Unity and Reconciliation contains the following statement: The adoption of this Constitution lays the secure foundation for the people of South Africa to transcend the divisions and strife of the past, which generated gross violations of human rights, the transgression of humanitarian principles in violent conflicts and a legacy of hatred, fear, guilt and revenge. These can now be addressed on the basis that there is a need for understanding but not for vengeance, a need for reparation but not for retaliation, a need for ubuntu but not for victimisation (S v Makwanyane and Another 1995, §130-131, emphasis added). should read as follows: The Constitutional Court in S v Makwanyane, a decision dealing with the constitutionality of the death penalty, made it clear that ubuntu is part and parcel of the South African legal system. The Court held that the legacy of the past and gross human rights violations must be addressed through the Constitution and human rights culture, including that [r]etribution ought not to be given undue weight in the balancing process. The Constitution is premised on the assumption that ours will be a constitutional state founded on the recognition of human rights. The concluding provision on National Unity and Reconciliation contains the following statement: The adoption of this Constitution lays the secure foundation for the people of South Africa to transcend the divisions and strife of the past, which generated gross violations of human rights, the transgression of humanitarian principles in violent conflicts and a legacy of hatred, fear, guilt and revenge. These can now be addressed on the basis that there is a need for understanding but not for vengeance, a need for reparation but not for retaliation, a need for ubuntu but not for victimisation (S v Makwanyane and Another 1995, §130, emphasis added).