Traditional leaders in the Eastern Cape are appealing to President Cyril Ramaphosa to urgently help them pass the Traditional Courts Bill.
This piece of legislation would equip traditional courts with greater legal powers to help fight the scourge of gender-based violence and botched circumcisions in rural areas.
Following the recent spate of gender-based violence killings -- as well as the age-old problem of initiate deaths and botched circumcisions in rural areas -- traditional leaders have reignited the call for statutory powers to fight criminality in rural areas.
According to the Daily Dispatch, chairperson of the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders, Chief Mpumalanga Gwadiso, said criminal elements in rural areas had created a dangerous environment for women.
"We have a huge problem of rape in our rural areas," said Gwadiso. "We want to fight this scourge in our areas. We are opposed to gender-based violence and we appeal to the president for support."
Gwadiso said they are prepared to negotiate with the president to iron out any differences.
"If a person is in our jurisdiction, they are supposed to be subjected to traditional court processes," he said.
The idea of legalising the Traditional Courts Bill sparked a public outcry in 2008 when it was first tabled in Parliament, with fears that passing the bill would give rise to gross human rights violations.
When signed into law, a traditional court would have a presiding officer who was either a king, queen, senior traditional leader, headman or member of a royal family who would be chosen as a presiding officer of a traditional court by the justice minister.
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According to the bill, traditional courts would have no authority to order imprisonment or detention but could impose fines payable in the form of money or livestock on those found guilty.
Nkosi Phakamisa Tyali, a chief in the AmaMpondomise kingdom, said: "The bill came to us and we commented on it. We made it clear that the bill was just a formality because we already have our own courts in our areas, but there is no law which regulates their operations.
"We want to eliminate lawlessness in our areas."
He said magistrates' courts in the cities and towns were faced with a backlog of cases.
"Some cases should not have been with magistrates' courts in the first place. Some of them are petty issues that were supposed to be presided over in a traditional court."
"We want the government not only to pass the bill but to give support and resources to traditional leaders to do their work in the fight against crime," The Daily Dispatch reported.
