Source — Malan, "The Suitability and Unsuitability of Ubuntu in Constitutional Law" (2014)
- Title: "The Suitability and Unsuitability of Ubuntu in Constitutional Law — Inter-Communal Relations versus Public Office-Bearing"
- Author: Koos Malan
- Publication: De Jure 47, no. 2 (2014): 272–305, hosted on SciELO South Africa
- Date: 2014
- URL: https://scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2225-71602014000300007
- Accessed: 2026-09-02
- Type: secondary (peer-reviewed South African legal-academic journal article); critical/skeptical stance — the author accepts ubuntu's value in inter-personal and inter-communal relations but argues against its extension to evaluating public officials.
Extract
Judicial definitions of ubuntu the article collects from South African Constitutional Court case law:
- S v Makwanyane (1995), Langa J: ubuntu emphasizes "respect for human dignity, marking a shift from confrontation to conciliation"; "heinous crimes are the antithesis of ubuntu."
- S v Makwanyane (1995), Mokgoro J: "ubuntu translates as 'humaneness'... denot[ing] humanity and morality," "envelop[ing] the key values of group solidarity, compassion, respect, human dignity" (this project separately read Mokgoro J's judgment directly —
sources/wikisource-s-v-makwanyane-mokgoro-j.md— and confirms this is an accurate paraphrase of the primary text). - Port Elizabeth Municipality v Various Occupiers (2005), Sachs J: ubuntu suffuses "the whole constitutional order" and is "a unifying motif of the Bill of Rights."
The article synthesizes the case law's recurring features of ubuntu: it contrasts with vengeance, prioritizes human dignity, favors "re-establishment of harmony" over punishment, favors "restorative rather than retributive justice," and promotes "civility and civilized dialogue."
The article's own argument: Malan holds that ubuntu is appropriate for governing inter-communal relations but inappropriate as a standard for assessing public office-bearers, because evaluating officials by "warm relations" rather than defined legal duties risks corrupting governance — "warm relations may sprout... for the opposite, and often incorrect, reasons."
Gaps
- This project has not read the article in full (only a summarized fetch); the full 33-page journal article likely contains additional case citations and argument not captured here.
- Malan's own political/jurisprudential position (he is a critic of ubuntu's expansion into public law) should be read as one side of an active South African legal-academic debate, not the settled view — this project has not yet located a source defending the broader application he criticizes.