Abstract
This chapter examines the development of child justice system in South Africa. It demonstrates how the system of child justice gained constitutional recognition and how the ratification and domestication of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Hague Conventions on Abduction and Adoption ushered in a comprehensive legislation on the protection of the rights of the children who are in conflict with the law or in need of care and protection. The chapter examines the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 and Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 which were the new sets of legislation enacted to complement the constitutional protection with other laws and policies put in place for the welfare of children in South Africa. The author interrogates the establishment of custodial institutions and the extent of their achievements of the primary objective of reintegration of child offender into the society. The empirical findings in this book revealed the models put in place for alternative care of children in need of care and protection which inadequate budgetary allocations have been observed by the author to be the major hindrance of the huge success which could have been recorded in the administration of child justice in South Africa.