The Historical Development of South African Customary Law

In South Africa,customary law played a very important role in its law tradition.It was divided into official customary law and aboriginal customary law.Generally,customary law in South Africa refers to its aboriginal customary law.In pro-colonial,colonial and post-colonial periods,South African customary law's status,functions,features,applicable scopes and conditions are different.Under the new South African Constitution,South African customary law parallels common law in reality.But in judicial practice,South African courts meet some problems about how to use South African customary law.