Family matters and the state: policy and everyday life

Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, 2014

2013

Development and Change, 2011

This article draws together unusual characteristics of the legacy of apartheid in South Africa: the state-orchestrated destruction of family life, high rates of unemployment and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. The disruption of family life has resulted in a situation in which many women have to fulfil the role of both breadwinner and care giver in a context of high unemployment and very limited economic opportunities. The question that follows is: given this crisis of care, to what extent can or will social protection and employment-related social policies provide the support women and children need? Development and Change 42(4): 925-946. C 2011 International Institute of Social Studies. Published by Blackwell Publishing,

2015

South Africa is a migration destination with a paradoxical policy environment. On the one hand it is generous – extending access to health care, education and rights for women, homosexuals and persons with disabilities to all persons within its borders. On the other hand, it is stingy and obstructive – tolerating a large informal labour market with uneven protections disadvantaging migrants, high hurdles for asylum seekers and one of the most extreme inequality rates in the world. As transnational workers, children, partners, spouses and parents expand their social, economic and physical footprint beyond their home countries they confront South Africa’s borders, laws and policies. They also encounter South Africa’s ongoing project to build a collective national identity and semblance of ‘social cohesion’, a project that has proven contentious, sometimes violent and arguably, poorly managed. With global migration trends increasingly South-South in orientation and largely inter and in...

South African Review of Sociology, 2015

Law, Democracy and Development, 2000

The White Paper for Social Welfare (GN 1 108 in GG 18166 of 8 August 199793) defines "family" as: "individuals who either by contract or agreement choose to live together intimately and function as a unit in a social and economic system. The family is the primary social unit which ideally provides care, nurturing and socialisation for its members". However, in modern society it must be accepted that the nuclear family, consisting of a father and a mother and their children, does not constitute the norm as it may have before.

2010

Traditionally, the law has tied the formal status of being married to an extensive range of rights, duties, benefits and burdens. Non-marital conjugal unions were largely 'invisible to law'. This approach has, however, come under increasing attack on the grounds that it rests on illegitimate, moralistic disapproval of non-marital relationships, involves unfair discrimination on the ground of marital status and is out of touch with contemporary social practices and the increasing variety of non-traditional family forms. The formal approach has as a result come to be eclipsed in the Western world by a functional approach to family law. The focus tends now to be on the substance of different relationships and the needs of the parties to them, rather than their form or official status.

2009

This dissertation looks at the position of the unmarried father in South Africa with regard to obtaining access to his illegitimate child. The writer has focused on three distinct eras in South African family law: the position of unmarried fathers in terms of: the common law; Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act; and the Children's Act. The writer has further focused on a case study. This is to emphasis the difficulty which unmarried fathers have when attempting to go through the courts to have access to his child. In terms of South African common law, fathers of illegitimate children did not have any form of parental authority over the child. The mothers of illegitimate children have full parental authority over such children. Access in terms of South African commonlaw is seen as an incident of parental authority. Unmarried fathers nevertheless had the right to approach the high court to obtain access to their children, if the mother of the child refuses to allow the father to have such access. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, there was an overwhelming amount of applications brought by unmarried fathers in the high courts so as to obtain access to their illegitimate children. The case of Van Erk v Holmer 1992 (2) SA 636 (W) sparked victory for unmarried fathers when the learned judge held that all unmarried fathers of children have an inherent right of access to their children. This victory was short-lived. Subsequent case law and in particular the case of B v S 1995 (3) SA 571 (A) enforced the common law and held that unmarried fathers do not have an automatic right to their illegitimate children and that such fathers will have to apply to the high court for such access. Due to the increase in litigation in the late 1980's and early 1990's regarding a father's access to his child born out of wedlock the Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act commenced on 4 September 1998. The South African legislature adopted the approach taken in the case of B v S 1995 (3) SA 571 (A) and rejected the approach taken in the case of Van Erk v Holmer 1992 (2) SA 636 (W) ie the common law continued to remain the approach taken in South Africa. Legislators recognised that the approach taken in the Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act does not conform to the provisions of the African Charter of the Rights and the Welfare of the Child, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and equality and dignity provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. On 19 June 2006, the Children's Act was effected and will commence once promulgated in the Government Gazette. The writer then determines whether the Children's Act has in practice changed the position of the unmarried father.

2020

Southern African Women's Struggle to both Uphold Tradition and Promote Women's Equality in the Family A woman in modern Limpopo, South Africa explained traditional marital expectations by re-telling what her aunt once said to her: "Lady, you must know that this man is your head, you are the neck. Whatever he is telling you, or whatever he is saying, that's the word, he's the head, you don't have to challenge him". 1 This quote shows that unequal familial structures pervade Southern Africa. The traditional structure of marriage in Southern Africa empowers mothers while disparaging wives, consequently minimizing young women's economic opportunities, while preserving older women's economic security. Traditional Southern African marital customs have significant influence over the current institution of marriage, as do colonial impositions on marriage. After South Africa established independence, the Recognition of Customary Marriage Act demonstrated the ongoing conflict between upholding tradition and protecting women's rights. This paper progresses through history from immediately before colonization to the early 2000s, identifying the legal and social sources of conflict for women, as they struggle to maintain tradtionalism's empowerment of mothers, while maximizing wives' equality and opportunities. Throughout this paper I will use the term "wife" to refer to young wives and "mother" to refer to older women. Of course, most women are simultaneously a wife and a mother. The multiple familial roles that women possess influence their social position in a given scenario. 2