Ubuntu and the law

Wikipedia defines Ubuntu as a Nguni Bantu term meaning "humanity". It is often translated as "I am because we are," and "humanity towards others", but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".

According to a colleague, Adv Viljoen Meijers, who researched the impact of ubuntu on the modern law, the term first appears in the Child Justice Act, whose objects are to ‘promote the spirit of ubuntu’ by fostering children’s sense of dignity and worth and reinforcing their respect for human rights and the fundamental freedom of others by holding children accountable for their actions and safeguarding the interests of victims and the community.

The Constitutional Court found that the primary application of ubuntu was in the field of political reconciliation. The court stated: ‘ubuntu is a culture which places some emphasis on communality and on the interdependence of the members of a community. It recognises a person’s status as a human being, entitled to unconditional respect, dignity, value and acceptance from the members of a community such person happens to be a part of’. By the same token, ‘the person has a corresponding duty to give the same respect, dignity, value and acceptance to each member of the community’. Ubuntu ‘carries in it the ideas of humaneness, social justice and fairness…’; ‘an instinctive capacity for and enjoyment of love towards our fellow men and women.’

In a Supreme Court of Appeal matter, dealing with a breach of contract, it was argued that the court should import a term into a lease based on ubuntu. The court refused to do so, reiterating the principle of sanctity of contract.

However, the same court, hearing a claim based on delict (in this case, child support), stated that one must have regard to constitutional values, one of such being ubuntu.

The Equality Court (in Afriforum v Malema) found that freedom of expression, particularly was is classified as hate-speech, is limited not only by the law but also by the spirit of ubuntu.

Adv Meijers concludes that ‘ubuntu will clearly shape the contractual and delictual landscape in the future.’