Frontiers of Family Law by Gareth Miller

Author:Gareth Miller [Miller, Gareth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, General, Law, Social Science
ISBN: 9781351774963
Google: llM8DwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 36812163
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

‘Please, Sir, I want some more’: New Developments in the South African Saga of Child Maintenance and Children's Rights

Brigitte Clark

Introduction

During the past three years,1 the position of poverty-stricken children in South Africa has not improved. In this country, a growing perception has developed that spending on social welfare services (as opposed to direct transfer payments in the form of grants and pensions) has diminished in the period since 1996.2 The lack of resources for both the prevention of abuse and neglect and for the protection of children is a central issue of concern in South Africa. There are, however, indications that the Constitutional Court and law reformers may well force the Government to take more dramatic steps than it has hitherto done. The implications of the South African ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),3 the constitutionalisation of children's rights,4 recent Constitutional and Supreme Court of Appeal cases and the new South African Children's Bill and Discussion Paper preceding it indicate that the state can no longer assume that social problems can be located solely within the individual or the family.

It is estimated that by 2005 there will be more than 1 million children under 16 years of age who have lost their parents due to HIV/AIDS,5 and that by 2010 there will be more than 2 million children under the age of 16 who have been orphaned by the disease.6 South Africa has a population of about 42 million. Approximately one-third of all South African households, about 18 million people, are living below the poverty line.7 Thirty-five per cent of South African households are headed by women and, of those households, 65 per cent live below the poverty datum line.8 There are 17 million children under the age of 18 in South Africa, which constitutes almost half of the population. Two thirds of all children live in fairly remote rural areas, and half of all children do not even possess birth certificates.9

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