African traditional culture is a spiritual and cultural wealth created and passed down by various ethnic groups in Africa over thousands of years. Its principles of punishment and rules of criminal law exhibit a unique charm and play a fundamental role in maintaining the social structure and order of traditional African societies. In the 1990s，against the backdrop of promoting national unity and reconciliation，the abolition of the death penalty by invoking the concept of Ubuntu and the recognition of customary law as a source of criminal law in the constitution marked the resurgence of African traditional culture in South African criminal law and began influencing the law that had been damaged by colonial rule and racial segregation. For more than 30 years，South Africa has been using the principles of Ubuntu and customary law in African traditional culture as a foundation to promote the localization of South African criminal law as well as create significant impact on the system of punishment and criminal offenses in contemporary criminal law.