Children’s Amendment Bill: Critics fear new law could “end adoption in SA”

The government have declared their intention to change the Children's Amendment Bill. But critics fear it could crush the adoption system.

You don’t get many warnings sterner than this. But Western Cape Minister for Social Development Albert Fritz has gone in hard with his criticism of the Children’s Amendment Bill – a change to current legislation that he believes would be the beginning of the end for adoption in South Africa.

What is the Children’s Amendment Bill?

He makes the extraordinary claim just a day after the bill was gazetted by the ANC. The bill sets out a number of provisions and changes to existing legal frameworks, listing the following as its main objectives:

Promote and protect a child’s right to physical and psychological integrity.

Regulate the position of unmarried fathers.

To extend the children’s court jurisdiction to hear applications for guardianship.

Provide for matters relating to the provision and funding of early childhood development programmes.

How it may affect adoption

But for MEC Fritz, there’s something resembling a devil in the detail. He has highlighted the amendments to sections 249 and 259 of the Children’s Act as being the most threatening towards potentially-adoptive parents.

He believes that the bill promises to stop important child welfare agencies – such as social workers and psychologists – from charging for their services when it comes to helping with the process of adoption. Although these fees will be absorbed by the state, it still means that an unnecessary amount of unpaid work will be shifted onto these professionals.

“These amendments will effectively put an end to adoptions in South Africa as accredited child protection organisations and other associated professionals won’t be able to charge for their expertise. While the state will absorb the work of doing adoptions; the reality is that its social workers will not have the time to facilitate adoption.”

“We have an estimated 3.7 million orphaned and vulnerable children – legislation should facilitate the seamless adoption of children. However, proposed national legislation will make it more difficult for would-be parents to adopt. Such a policy denies the most vulnerable children in our society of an opportunity to enjoy a better life.”

Albert Fritz

Next steps for the Children’s Amendment Bill

The provincial minister claims that the workload faced by South African social workers is already unmanageable. He says that some individuals are responsible for over 100 cases, rather than the recommended 60-per-worker.

There is currently a high court order compelling the National Minister, Susan Shabangu, to resolve this situation by November 2019. However, Fritz and his colleagues fear that the Children’s Amendment Bill will only make this crisis worse.

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