Ruling promotes ‘positive’ parental discipline

POSITIVE discipline is the new buzz word in parenting as a slap on the wrist can land them in jail. This is according to child rights activists following a South Gauteng High Court ruling on Friday that abolished common law defence of reasonable chastisement.

The judgment comes after a father appealed his guilty verdict of assaulting his 13-year-old son.

According to the experts, there was no clear definition of what “reasonable” chastisement was.

The deputy director at the Centre for Child Law, Karabo Ozah, said there were differences in opinions of what was reasonable physical punishment to discipline children. “There is no closed list of what it entails, but some people would say an open hand on the buttocks is reasonable – it’s very subjective and arbitrary in that the parent’s view of what is reasonable is what is looked at, and not the view of the child.

“The judgment means that now if a child was to lay charges of assault against his or her parents, the parent would not have a special defence.

“Parents are still at liberty to use their own disciplinary methods. The law will no longer make provision for a special defence where parents use physical punishment. In future, no parent will have this defence,” said Ozah.

Carol Bower of the Quaker Peace Foundation said many children were killed in disciplining gone too far.

“There is no such thing as reasonable chastisement; who makes the determination of what is reasonable? The law is clear: no one may hit another person; now that same law applies to hitting your child,” she said.

Both experts sighted alternatives for parents. Bower said one was involving children in the disciplining process.

“As a child gets older, draw up a code of conduct of how people are supposed to behave in the home. Make the rules with the child, they must be involved. Also create the consequences with the child.

“The consequences should fit what was done. Help guide the child’s decision-making. Yes, the child will test you by making those mistakes,” she said. Bower said corporal punishment often sent the wrong message to children. She said many times the parents acquire the bullying role.

University of Cape Town researcher Doctor Steffi Rohrs said government needed to step in and inform parents of children’s rights and of “positive discipline methods parents can use”.