Spanking Banned

It has been ruled by South Africa’s Constitutional Court that the spanking of a child by a parent is unconstitutional. The court delivered a ruling last week stating that “reasonable and moderate parental chastisement” could end you up in jail. This judgement trended on social media platforms with South African users debating the social merits and demerits of the judgement. A non-profit organisation Freedom of Religion says that this decision may hamper parent’s rights to raise children according to their religious belief, while University of Cape Town’s Children’s Institute declared the judgement as a landmark moment for children in South Africa.

To look at the implications of the constitutional court’s decision we speak to:

• Carmen de Vos, Senior Social Worker, parent education facilitator, counsellor and counselling supervisor at the Parent Centre
• Michael Swain, Executive Director of Freedom of Religion
• Maryke Huijbreg, Chief of Child Protection and Social Policy for UNICEF SA