Consultations on the Children’s Third Amendment Bill

24 Jul 2018
24 Jul 2018

 

 

The Children’s Amendment Bill and the Children’s Second Amendment Bill were promulgated in January 2018. These bills dealt with urgent amendments to the Children’s Act which were mostly technical. The Children's Third Amendment Bill (August version), which has recently been shared by the Department of Social Development, deals with a number of substantial amendments to the Children’s Act.
* Please note, that certain provisions in the August version have changed (for e.g. Section 150 and adoption). You may wish to revert back to the July version of the Bill which you can download here.

 

Proposed Amendments

The Children’s Third Amendment Bill proposes a number of amendments to the Children’s Act including amendments:

  • To address inconsistencies within the Children’s Act
  • To introduce new definitions
  • To remove the common law defence of reasonable chastisement and prohibit corporal punishment in the home
  • To regulate the position of unmarried fathers
  • To extend the children’s court jurisdiction to hear applications for guardianship
  • To clarify the conditional registration of partial care facilities
  • To include different types of ECD programmes, regulate funding of ECD programmes and other ECD-related amendments
  • To address partnerships and funding frameworks for prevention & early intervention services
  • To address the care of abandoned and orphaned children living with family (kinship care)
  • Amendments in relation to adoption
  • Amendments in relation to surrogate motherhood

 

Provincial Consultations

Provincial consultations on the Bill will take place simultaneously in different provinces.

DSD have informed us that they will be unable to cover accommodation costs for civil society organisations.

Province

Dates

Contact person

Contact number
  1. Gauteng (JHB/Pretoria)

15-17 August

Ms Saabia Shabudin

082 827 9072
  1. Northwest (Rustenburg)

29-31 August

Ms Dolly Melato

082 044 9225
  1. Western Cape (Cape Town/Stellenbosch)

22-24 August

Ms Rowena

021 483 3519
  1. Mpumalanga (Nelspruit)

5-7 September

Ms Lizzy Nyoni

072 198 5052
  1. Limpopo (Polokwane)

22-24 August

Ms Shirley

072 055 0320
  1. Northern Cape (Kimberley)

29-31 August

Mr Nkosi

082 442 9398
  1. Free State (Bloemfontein)

Postponed to Septembers - date TBD

Ms Mosetlhe

083 274 5610
  1. KZN (Durban)

29-31 August

Ms Omar

082 710 2505
  1. Eastern Cape (Port St Johns/East London)

5-7 September 

Mr Tafeni

Zandisile.Tafeni@ecdsd.gov.za

Manager: Dr R September

 

Venues

We do not have information on the venues for the provincial consultations. Please liaise directly with the provincial DSD point of contact.

 

Written Submissions

We strongly encourage you to participate in the provincial consultations and to make written submissions on the Bill. Written submissions are due 10 September and should be send to Ms. Sarah Mabasa at SarahMaf@dsd.gov.za and Ms. Matlhogonolo Sebopela at Matlhogonolos@dsd.gov.za

  • For written submissions, please download framework.
  • Download the draft Children's Third Amendment Bill (August version).
  • Please note, that certain provisions in the August version have changed (for e.g. Section 150 and adoption). You may wish to revert back to the July version of the Bill which you can download here.