The banning of corporal punishment in the home was achieved by evidence-based and sustained advocacy in which the Children’s Institute had a leading role - from the multisectoral Children’s Bill Working Group in the early 2000s to the Constitutional Court case in 2019.  

 

Turning to schools, we now advocate for the promotion of non-violent discipline, and for training and awareness-raising within classrooms. Over a million children experience corporal punishment in schools every year, according to Statistics South Africa.  

In 2024, we served as a friend of the court in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) case of Centre for Child Law and Others v South African Council for Educators and Others. The SCA reaffirmed the prohibition of corporal punishment in schools and emphasised the need for rehabilitative and corrective measures for teachers rather than purely punitive ones.

The SCA found that the South African Council for Educators (SACE) failed to consider the best interests of the children during disciplinary proceedings and instructed the SACE to work with us and with the Centre for Child Law to revise the SACE Mandatory Sanctions. Major changes in the revised sanctions include:

  • A requirement to hear from children and caregivers before deciding on the sanction; and
  • Rehabilitative sanctions: ordering teachers to undergo retraining before returning to the classroom in order to control their own anger or manage discipline through non-violent means. 

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