The Portfolio Committee on Social Development has resolved to defer the Children’s Amendment Bill to the Department of Social Department to allow it to redraft the 126 clauses the previous committee did not process.

That previous committee passed only 12 foster care-related clauses so that Parliament and the department could meet a North Gauteng High Court deadline. The department will redraft these clauses, taking into consideration the substantive submissions and proposals made by stakeholders and the public during the committee’s public participation process on the bill.

The previous committee had resolved that the bill be introduced as a committee bill by the 7th Parliament committee. However, after receiving legal advice from the Constitutional and Legal Services Office on the development, drafting and legislative processes of committee bills, as well as the implications of the Constitutional Court’s judgement on Section 40 of the Children’s Act, the committee resolved that the department is best placed to redraft the bill due to Parliament’s capacity constraints to develop policies that will substantiate the bill.

The submissions received contained new proposals that require extensive policy development on issues that include the safe abandonment of children (baby savers), corporal punishment, new proposals in relation to the rights of unmarried fathers (a traditional perspective) and children’s right to privacy on digital platforms.

The department’s legal advisor informed the committee that since the time the previous committee took a decision not to process the bill, many new issues have emerged in the space of intercountry adoptions, baby savers and the rights and responsibilities of unmarried fathers, which require the department to rethink its position on provisions it made previously on the bill. Even if Parliament had passed the Bill, the department would have to amend it again.

The committee agreed that the timeline of the processing of this Bill would receive priority oversight.