Constitutional Court to decide if parents can smack their children
The Constitutional Court will on Thursday (29 November), consider the question of whether it is lawful for South African parents to use ‘reasonable chastisement’ when disciplining their children.
This follows a 2017 High Court judgement which effectively made all forms of physical correction of children by their parents – no matter how light or well-intended – unlawful.
The appeal has been brought by Freedom of Religion South Africa (For SA), which is arguing that the High Court judgment will make criminals of well-meaning parents.
“The effect of the judgment is that if you give your child even the lightest slap on the wrist, you can be arrested and prosecuted for assault and if convicted, will have a life-long criminal record for abuse of your own children,” said For SA’s attorney Daniela Ellerbeck.
“Not just that, but for a trivial non-injurious slap, your children can be removed from the family home. One can only imagine the damage that this will do to families in South Africa.”
For SA is asking the Constitutional Court to find that the High Court was wrong in abolishing parents’ historic common law defence of ‘reasonable and moderate’ chastisement to a charge of assault, and to set the judgment which it sees an unwarranted interference with parental and religious rights aside.
“It is hard to imagine a more personal matter than how one chooses to teach one’s child to do the right thing.
“The right to educate one’s children according to one’s own convictions and understanding, is among the most precious rights that a free society grants its members,” said Ellerbeck.
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