This paper examines the articulation of Ubuntu as a traditional African form of
justice and how it was deployed to legitimize the Transition and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC), as a restorative transitional justice model within and beyond post-apartheid South
Africa. Transitional justice here refers to judicial and non-judicial measures implemented to
redress legacies of human rights abuses in the aftermath of conflict and repression. It seeks
recognition and justice for victims while promoting peace and reconciliation. In the final
analysis, it is observed that the deployment of ubuntu in both the context of the TRC and
socioeconomic rights jurisprudence represents a vernacularisation process that has served to
legitimize universal human rights in South Africa. It also marks a distinctive South African
and African normative contribution to the discourse on human dignity and the global
fulfilment of universal human rights.