Academic Director Graduate School of Business Leadership University of South Africa South Africa the Emergence of Alternative Dispute Resolution in South Africa: a Lesson for Other African Countries

Disputes are an inevitable event in all facets of life and in the same vein it permeates society, from family quarrels to multinational corporate clashes. The dynamics of today society which revolve around competition, misunderstandings, wrongful termination of contracts, product liability and hostility among communities have contributed greatly to the endemic nature of dispute in our society. The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) method of adjudication in South Africa has been very useful as a means of resolving dispute at a reasonable cost to parties involved in dispute. Besides the cost, the method does not require the ultimate decision to be made formally by a judge or jury. The main objective is to keep disputes out of the normal court system in an effort to cut down the cost of resolving the dispute among the parties. In view of the above issues, the principal aim of this paper is to show how South Africa has successfully used ADR to settle dispute and how this method can be used by other countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Malawi and other African countries where the method of ADR has not been fully utilized.