Dissonance, Discordance, and Disparity: The Impact of Differences in Papers, Processes, and People on Justice for Domestic Violence Survivors in South Africa

Abstract

This article explores the disparate and idiosyncratic implementation of the protection order (PO) process at magistrates’ courts in South Africa’s Western Cape, and the impact of this discordance upon survivors of domestic violence seeking assistance from the justice system. Drawing upon qualitative research undertaken by the authors from 1999 to 2022, we highlight crucial differences in PO papers, processes and actors across magistrates’ courts.  Contrary to claims that the law is unified and standardized—offering the “maximum level of protection” for all survivors across the country—we illustrate that protection order applicants instead have widely differing experiences, dependent on the procedures, street-level bureaucrats and local legal cultures of their court. These differences have an inequitable and arbitrary effect which often deprives domestic violence survivors of access to justice while blaming those very same applicants for failing to “follow the process”.