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Beyond the colour line: When justice should be just

24 June 2025 | Story Zinhle Vanda | Photo Supplied

Opinion article by Zinhle Vanda, an honours student in Sociology at the University of the Free State

Racial issues should not and cannot be ignored; however, the tendency to racialise every issue has been a problem, even when justice should be served. This can be emotionally exhausting, especially for a nation trying to heal from past racial oppression. Every time a high-profile crime or court case emerges, people hold their collective breath – not just for justice, but for what colour that justice will wear. But should we?

The case of Cwecwe, a young seven-year-old girl from Matatiele in the Eastern Cape, shocked the nation. One of the alleged key suspects was a white man. While the initial public response was rightly centred on justice for the child, the focus quickly shifted for some advocates. Instead of remaining united and calling out against gender-based violence, the case took a sharp turn towards a racial battle. This was slowly reflecting how South Africans pull out the ‘racial card’ in uncomfortable battles. This case had various accusations; some argued that the white suspect was being protected by the system and others defended his innocence. These allegations sparked social media comments such as, “If the victim was a white girl and the accused was a black man, the case would have taken a different direction.” What could have been a moment of national child protection advocacy has become yet another episode in South Africa’s long racial war. It is important to note that no charges or prosecution were brought against the man/men responsible after the investigation; the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) found no conclusive evidence to proceed with the case. The focus of this piece is on public judgment rather than proving guilt or innocence, and how public opinion – especially social media – sometimes overpowers the narrative, the true aim of justice, and the protection of victims like Cwecwe.

In these cases, justice is either seen as revenge or bias

In cases where the victim and suspect are of different races, justice is often not seen as justice, it is either seen as revenge or bias. Questions like was justice done? are no longer asked; instead, the question asked is, for whom was it done? The painful result is the actual issue of a child survivor of sexual violence fading into the background. The danger lies in letting race dominate every justice conversation, as it defeats the whole purpose of justice. This leads to the pain of those who are vulnerable, often women and children, being overlooked. This is what Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality says – that multiple forms of oppression such as race and sexism can overlap, making people more vulnerable. Intersectionality is specific forms of intersecting oppressions, which could include intersections of race and gender, or of sexuality and nation. Intersectional paradigms say that oppression cannot be reduced to one fundamental type, and that oppressions work together to cause injustice. Intersectionality makes a bold argument that true justice means seeing all parts of a person’s identity, not just the most politically charged one. In cases where race become the core focus, issues such as gender-based violence or child protection are pushed aside, even when there is connection. Justice will never be served in a country like South Africa if the race of the accused takes precedence over the crime committed. We cannot shy away from the truth; black people have been oppressed in the past and may still be bleeding from this injustice. Intersectionality urges us to consider historical context in all aspects of our analyses, but this should not come at the expense of other crucial factors such as gender, children’s rights, criminality, justice, and others that are essential to understanding a case like Cwecwe’s abuse.

Being a criminal has nothing to do with skin colour

Will the battle of race end? Most of South Africa’s issues are the result of racial discourse, but not everything can be resolved through the racial lens. The amount of focus directed at race tends to defeat the means of justice and hinder national healing. This only weakens the nation’s unity and has the potential to affect coming generations. Justice should be characterised by fairness, equality, the truth, and accountability. It should not only wear a racial mask or be seen as revenge for past and present wounds or enable racial oppression. This highlights the need to critically examine how our understanding of justice is shaped by societal narratives, historical contexts, and collective experiences. The social constructivist theory of reality, developed by Peter L Berger and Thomas Luckmann in 1966, argues that social concepts such as justice are constructed through collective human interpretation and interaction, rather than existing as objective or universal truths. It looks at how people’s social understanding is shaped by social narratives and collective beliefs. This explain why certain crimes are viewed through the lens of race rather than justice, because of the social meaning attached to race and violence. According to this theory, people do not often react to facts, but they react to the social meaning that those facts carry. Apartheid is part of South Africa’s history, and it comes as no surprise that racial segregation remains a dominant narrative for its citizens. Furthermore, the social construction theory illustrates how this racial emphasis is not a natural reason, but rather a socially produced one. Thus, the racial image portrayed in the justice system often associates black people with violence and subordination, and white people are associated with innocence and protection. This leads to black victims not getting justice, and crimes against them remain forgotten. And black accused receive heftier prison sentences. Being a criminal has nothing to do with the colour of one’s skin; the focus should be more on the crime committed. Justice should be fairly applied; no one is above the law, and no race or colour should be treated as superior or inferior under it.

In conclusion, the public reaction to the Cwecwe case revealed how quickly racial narratives can shape public opinion, often before all the facts are known. The case became less about justice for a young girl and more about race. This reflects a broader issue in society, where certain groups are either unfairly protected or quickly condemned based on long-standing social and racial perceptions. The process of justice must be fair, with integrity, race must not dominate the facts. For a truly just society, the urge to draw conclusions based on racial identity must be resisted, and instead the principles of due process and equal treatment under the law must be upheld.

Zinhle Vanda is an honours student in Sociology at the University of the Free State. As an emerging social justice activist, she is committed to examining how societal narratives and power dynamics shape people’s understandings of race, justice, and inequality. She writes in her personal capacity.

News Archive

Situation on the Bloemfontein Campus, and letter to parents

2016-02-28

Letter to parents from Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS

Statement by Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS) about the situation on the Bloemfontein Campus

1.   As all of you know, last night we witnessed a really tragic event at Xerox Shimla Park on the Bloemfontein Campus on the occasion of the Varsity Cup rugby match between NMMU (FNB Madibaz) and UFS (FNB Shimlas).
2.   The game started at 18:30 and about 17 minutes into the match, a group of protestors sitting on the north-eastern side of the stadium decided to invade the pitch and disrupt the game in progress.
3.   After a short while, some of the spectators also invaded the field, chasing and brutally beating those protestors whom they caught.
4.   As a university leadership we condemn in the strongest terms possible the vicious attack on the protestors. Nobody, repeat nobody, has the right to take the law into their own hands. While the protests were illegal and disruptive, it did not harm to the physical well-being of the spectators.
5.   The reaction from the group of spectators, however, not only opened old wounds, it trampled, literally and figuratively, on the dignity and humanity of other human beings. This we condemn in no uncertain terms, and no stone will be left unturned to find those who acted so violently on what should have been a beautiful occasion that also brought families and young children together to enjoy an evening of sport.
6.   I cannot over-emphasise our level of disgust and dismay at the behaviour of the spectators. It is NOT what the University of the Free State (UFS) is about and we are working around the clock to gather evidence on the basis of which we will pursue both charges and, in the case of students, also disciplinary action on campus.
7.   At the same time, the invasion of the pitch is also completely unacceptable and we will seek evidence on the basis of which we will act against those who decided to disrupt an official university event.
8.   Clashes between students occurred afterwards on campus and members of the Public Order Policing had to disperse some of them. The situation was stabilised in the early hours of the morning.
9.   Disruption continued this morning (23 February 2016) when students damaged some university buildings, a statue, and broke windows. Additional reinforcements from the South African Police Service were brought in to stabilise the campus. Additional security has also been deployed.

Broader picture
10.   We are very aware of the national crisis on university campuses and the instability currently underway. While the UFS has been largely peaceful, we have not been spared this turmoil, as last night’s events showed.
11.   We are also conscious of the fact that even as we speak, various political formations are vying for position inside the turmoil in this important election year. In fact, part of the difficulty of resolving competing demands is that they come from different political quarters, and change all the time.
12.   We are therefore learning from reliable sources that the Varsity Cup competition is, in fact, a target of national protests in front of a television audience.
13.   And we are aware of the fact that these protests are not only led by students but also by people from outside who have no association with the university. Just as the violent spectators involved on Monday night also included people from outside the university.

The demands
14.   My team has worked around the clock to try to meet the demands of contract workers demanding to be in-sourced. In fact, this weekend past, senior colleagues sat with worker leaders in the township to try to find ways of meeting their demands. We were hoping that such an agreement would be finalised by Monday afternoon (22 February 2016), but on the same Monday morning workers and students were arrested after moving onto Nelson Mandela Avenue, after which the South African Police Service (SAPS) took over as the matter became a public safety concern outside the hands of the university. Since then, it was difficult to return the workers to settle on a possible agreement.
15.   The fact is that the UFS has been in constant negotiation with contract workers to provide our colleagues with a decent wage and certain benefits. In fact, towards the end of last year we raised the minimum wage from R2 500 to R5 000. We were in fact hoping that the continued negotiations would improve that level of compensation even as we looked at a possible plan for insourcing in the future. We made it clear that if we could insource immediately, we would, but that the financial risk to the university was so great that it threatened the jobs of all our staff. Those negotiations were going well, until recently, when without notice the workers broke away and decided to protest on and around campus.
16.   While these negotiations were going on, the Student Representative Council (SRC) on Monday 22 February 2016 also decided to protest. While the vast majority of our 32 000 students were in classes and determined to get an education, a very small group led by the SRC President decided to protest; some invaded the UFS Sasol Library and the computer centre, and with the President eventually made their way to Xerox Shimla Park on which route they confronted the police, interrupted traffic and in fact injured some of our security staff as well as police officials.
17.   The university is definitely proceeding to collect evidence on these illegal and violent acts and will also act firmly against students involved in these protests.

Summary
18.   The events of Monday night represent a major setback for the transformation process at the UFS. While we have made major progress in recent years—from residence integration to a more inclusive language policy to a core curriculum to very successful ‘leadership for change’ interventions for student leaders—we still have a long way to go.
19.   One violent incident on a rugby field and we again see the long road ahead yet to be travelled. As I have often said before, you cannot deeply transform a century-old university and its community overnight. We acknowledge the progress but also the still long and difficult path ahead. We will not give up.
20.   We have 32 000 students on our campuses; the overwhelming majority of them are decent and committed to building bridges over old divides as we have seen over and over again. So many of our students, black and white, have become close and even intimate friends working hard to make this a better campus and ours a better community and country. Like all of us, they are gutted by what they saw on Monday, but the hundreds of messages I received from parents, students, and alumni this past 20 hours or so said one thing—keep on keeping on. And we will.

The Big Read: An assault on transformation (Times Live kolom deur Prof Jonathan Jansen: 25 Februarie 2016)

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