New law to give parents a voice

Sowetan : An Act protecting children's rights might be changed to give parents and caregivers more voice before children are removed from their care. The Constitutional Court heard yesterday that the Act infringed on the right of the child to family care or parental care. Ann Skelton, of the Centre for Child Law at the University of Pretoria, said parents and caregivers had to be interviewed first before children were taken away. "There is no judicial hearing. These types of children and parents who find themselves in this situation are unlikely to get assistance," Skelton said. She said parents were not given an opportunity to state their side of the story. Skelton said this was because though there was an obligation by law to notify the parent to come to court, it did not go as far as explaining to them that they need to come to court. "There must be something in the law to ensure that parents are heard," Skelton said.

She argued that some parents might not even know that the children's court existed or where it was. In August last year social workers from the Gauteng department of health and social development, with officials from the Tshwane municipality, conducted a raid involving the removal of children from people found to be begging while accompanied by children. They placed the children into temporary safe care without a court order. The parents whose children were taken approached the high court for an order restoring their children to their care, which was granted. The high court found that the Children's Act did not provide for judicial review of the removal of a child from parental care, which rendered the legislation "procedurally deficient, with inadequate protective mechanisms in place to ensure that drastic interference with the child's right to parental care is not arbitrary, unreasonable or unjust".
The high court held that that constituted an infringement of the right of the child to family care or parental care, the requirement that the best interests of the child be the paramount consideration in all matters concerning the child, and the right of parents to privacy within the family. Lawyer for the department and the municipality Soraya Hassim argued that social workers were given up to 90 days to compile a report to see whether to take the child to a place of safety. Both lawyers to the court said it would be difficult to give the legislature time to change the law.
The judgment was reserved.
 
Aug 17, 2011 | Mfundekelwa Mkhulisi, Sowetan