Blog

ADR, Mediation and Restorative Justice Roundup It’s been a while since I blogged. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times[i] Best (Well…in a manner of speaking) 2021 has been a strange year. A bit like the classic Tale of Two Cities. It was the Best of...

INTEGRATIVE JUSTICE: Presentation for National Strategic Plan on GBVF (Pillar 3) A FUNDAMENTAL SHIFT: TOUGH MINDS, TENDER HEARTS In ancient times the lawyer was the healer in society. In the same way as the physician was the healer of the body, the lawyer was looked...

  We need a justice that restores. This week, the testimony of Dudu Myeni at the state capture commission has brought some important issues to the fore. Some months ago I wrote about the possible role of restorative justice in the problem of state capture and...

  The horse-racing protests at Fairview and how we think about protest. I recently wrote about the Clicks protests and how the EFF was disturbing the ‘peace’ and revealing and confronting the folly of the idea of and insistence on ‘law and order’ in a deeply unjust...

  Earlier this week I wrote about the EFF call to action and insuring protests in the wake of the racist hair advert published by Clicks and its partners. In order to get to true peace where justice is present, it may be necessary to disturb the peace or the folly of...

  We are in a global space of struggle that threatens the core of capitalism and its various racialised manifestations not least of which is the boot on the neck of the black majority in South Africa where labour potential is sold to the quintessential lowest bidder...

  I THOUGHT WE SHOULD TALK A case for mediation in divorce By Sheena Jonker ‘I charge 950 dollars an hour. Ted over there will be assisting in your divorce. He charges 400 dollars an hour. You got stupid questions, you call Ted’ From Marriage Story I had been sick...

  Are we having the right conversation? Are we thinking about this in the right way? Remedial work requires right thinking, right seeing, right speaking and right action. In mediating conflict I often find myself saying to parties ‘are you seeing this in the right...

  Introduction I’m going to be spending a little time talking about the space within which we mediate and the stance, or the inner posture that the mediator brings with them. The Mediation Space Although Mediation is presented as an alternative to law and litigation,...

As mediators we need to grapple and tussle with what it means to be human. This means wrestling with fear, courage or lack of courage and ongoing self-interrogation. Dr Cornel West, in his lecture, ‘What it Means to be Human’[i] references Plato’s ‘Apology’: the...