The debate in legal circles in South Africa about the lawfulness of the common-law defence,
until recently available to parents, of parental entitlement to administer moderate and
reasonable chastisement to their children has been going on for more than a hundred years.
Notwithstanding the long duration of the debate and the important effect of the constitutional
developments in South Africa under the Constitution of the RSA, 1996, in conjunction with
the requirements of international law, legal certainty about this particular legal question was
only achieved in September 2019. In Freedom of Religion SA v Minister of Justice and Others,
the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa, decided that the common-law
defence of parental authority to administer moderate and reasonable chastisement to their
children, even in the privacy of their own homes, is unconstitutional and therefore invalid.
After weighing up all competing interests and rights of both parents and their children, the
court came to the final conclusion that no lawful justification remains for the retention of the
defence of parental entitlement to administer physical chastisement to their children, not even
on religious grounds, and that the limitation of the rights of children who are subjected to
such practices are unjustified and not legally permissible. Unless legal amendments are effected
in South Africa in the future, this decision of the court dealt parents’ entitlement to administer
moderate and reasonable chastisement to their children a mortal blow.
Die regsdebat oor die geldigheid van die gemeenregtelike verweer waaroor ouers tot onlangs
nog binne die Suid-Afrikaanse regstelsel beskik het, naamlik die bevoegdheid tot redelike en
matige tugtiging van hulle kinders, word al meer as ’n honderd jaar lank in Suid-Afrika gevoer.
Nieteenstaande die lang duur van die debat en die belangrike uitwerking van die staatsregtelike
ontwikkeling in Suid-Afrika onder die Grondwet van die RSA, 1996, in samehang met die
vereistes van die internasionale reg, het daar eers in September 2019 regsekerheid oor dié
bepaalde regsvraag gekom. In Freedom of Religion SA v Minister of Justice and Others het
die Konstitusionele Hof, Suid-Afrika se hoogste hof, beslis dat die gemeenregtelike verweer
van ouerlike bevoegdheid tot redelike en matige tugtiging van hulle kinders, selfs in hulle
private wonings, ongrondwetlik en derhalwe ongeldig is. Ná opweging van al die mededingende
belange en regte van sowel ouers as hulle kinders kom die hof tot die finale beslissing dat daar
regtens geen regverdiging meer bestaan vir die voortgesette behoud van fisieke ouerlike
tugtiging nie, selfs nie eens op grond van godsdienstige riglyne nie, en derhalwe ook nie vir
die volgehoue inbreukmaking op die regte van kinders wat aan sodanige tugtigingspraktyke
blootgestel word nie. Tensy daar ander regswysigings binne die Suid-Afrikaanse regstelsel
aangebring word, beteken hierdie beslissing van die hof dat die toediening deur ouers van
redelike en matige fisieke tugtiging aan hulle kinders ’n finale doodskoot gekry het.
