South African Traditional Courts?

Question

So, if someone in South Africa (it is usually a government official, from the accounts I've read) is accused of a crime, whose choice is it to try the case in a traditional court (instead of a regular court). I ask because in every news article I have read, the traditional courts only fine the guy 4 or 5 cows. For someone that has embezzeled a lot of money (or committed bigamy - possibly legal?), this seems a little low. Anyone know?

Answer 1

The criminal justice system is administered
nationally. It is an adversarial system in which
state prosecutors present cases against the
accused, who has a right to be represented by a
lawyer. (McQuoid-Mason, 1990:198).
One of the vestiges of the process of
indirect rule during colonial times is the urban
equivalent of the chief's courts in the African
townships. Under the Black Administration Act no.
38 of 1927 (as amended ) certain Africans can
acquire the right to convene courts and hear
matters in which customary law features. Since
customary law does not distinguish between
criminal and civil law, they may hear certain
criminal matters. The system has, however, been
so discredited through its close association with
the apartheid administration that hundreds of
competing non-state courts have been set up and
operate in the townships (Hund and Kotu-Rammopo,
1983).
During the emergency years these competing
courts were an oppositional system of justice, but
now are gradually profiling themselves for
inclusion into the adjudicative hierarchy in the
post-apartheid era (Burman and Schaerf, 1990).

Judicial powers may be
conferred upon any African Chief or headman for
trying and sentencing any African person who has
committed any offense under Common Law or under
Black Laws and customs (except for any offense
referred to in the third schedule (sec 20) of the
Black Administration Act). The same judicial
powers may be conferred upon an African in an
urban area (sec 21(A) of Black Administration Act
38 1927 as amended by Act 94 of 1980).
Non-state courts in the Black townships
arguably hear more criminal cases than the formal
courts, but they tend to turn murder and rape
cases over to the police. (Burman, 1989: 154).