Mixed response to court’s ruling on spanking of kids

Our children are ill-mannered because of a lack of discipline – and a little punishment goes a long way.

That was the overriding sentiment shared by most parents on Wednesday following the Constitutional Court ruling on reasonable chastisement.

However, children’s rights organisations hailed the ruling as a victory.

The Constitutional Court upheld an earlier ruling by the high court to do away with the common-law defence of reasonable chastisement when spanking a child.

The judgment comes at a time when violence against women and children has been a burning issue in SA.

The issue reached the apex court for a final decision after civil society group Freedom of Religion SA (FOR SA) challenged the 2017 ruling by the South Gauteng High Court that effectively ruled that it was illegal for parents to spank their children.

Educational expert Professor Susan van Rensburg said for many years children had boundaries because they knew they would get a hiding should they misbehave.

“The fact that now not even the parents can punish their children takes all the power of parenting away,” she said.

“If even [reasonable chastisement] is considered to be negative, the question now is whether we have positive ways of punishment that are going to bring our kid in line with what they have to be.”

The new ruling disempowered parents, Van Rensburg said, adding that the Constitutional Court should have given conditions instead of ruling reasonable chastisement out.

She said she fully understood corporal punishment being ruled out at schools, adding that the judge should let South Africans know how to raise law-abiding citizens.

The Children’s Institute at UCT, however, said the judgment was guided by the best interests of the child in respect of protection from potential abuse.

“The best interests of the child would be to achieve discipline and achieve the same result without causing harm or unduly undermining the fundamental rights of the child,” it said in a statement.

“The judgment reinforced submissions by the Children’s Institute, the Quaker Peace Centre, and Sonke Gender Justice – all represented by the Centre for Child Law – which had underlined the high levels of violence against children and the link between corporal punishment and other forms of violence.

“Corporal punishment is one of the key drivers of the high levels of violence against children in South Africa.”

The institute pointed out that recent findings from the Birth to Twenty Plus study – which followed more than 2,000 children in Soweto from birth to 22 years old – showed that 50% of younger children had experienced violence in the home most often through physical punishment.

In adolescence, the proportion of children who have experienced violence in the home increases to 83%.

The institute said: “Evidence shows that violence during childhood increases the risk for young boys to later become perpetrators and young girls to be victims in intimate relationships.”

Educational psychologist Gerhart Goosen said spanking was the last resort and would usually come after speaking to a child.

“Kids aren’t taught discipline in school, they are taught discipline at home,” he said.

“Sticking to rules depends on the values parents instil in the child and that is the point of departure.

“Children can be difficult [and] not all kids are the same, and because of their personalities, with some children you need to be harsh.

“But that does not mean you have to be physical.

“Parents must do their bit and teachers must do their bit as trained professionals.”

Goosen said it was unfortunate that schools did not have a permanent psychologist, adding that both teachers and pupils needed help.

“We live in a very sick society and every school must have a full time psychologist.

“Working with children who are aggressive or have severe trauma affects the teacher as well,” Goosen said.

Commenting on the ruling, parent and Port Elizabeth resident Shantel Johnson said children without respect believed they could get away with bullying their teachers.

“This ruling will only make matters worse because children will do what they want when they want because they know they won’t get a hiding.

“I’m not saying abuse a child, but a little bit of punishment will help them understand that what they are doing is wrong.

“With my kids I speak to them a few times and then it’s followed by a consequence, especially if they are doing something that will harm them,” Johnson said.