Divorced parents speak out on new lockdown custody rules

● Some hugely relieved but others won’t be budging

It was pure joy that left his heart melting — that is how a Port Elizabeth man described hugging his two children for the first time yesterday since the nationwide lockdown started.

The father of a boy and girl said his children had remained with his ex-wife at the start of the lockdown on March 27.

“I really did not think much about it at the time,” he said, declining to be named.

“But as the days kept passing on, I realised the government had made a mistake in refusing children to move between two properties.”

A government gazette, signed by social development minister Lindiwe Zulu and published on Tuesday, sets out new requirements allowing divorced parents to move their children to their respective partners’ homes.

This is provided certain conditions are met in what is another change to the original set of lockdown rules.

It states that a child can be moved between the parents provided there are arrangements in place.

These include having a court order or that a “parental responsibilities and rights agreement” or a “parenting plan” exists.

That plan must be registered with a family advocate.

The gazette further states that the parent transporting the child must have the relevant documentation with them at all times.

It also states that nobody in the home the child is being moved to can have Covid-19 or have come into contact with someone suspected of having the respiratory illness.

“I went and picked them up [yesterday] morning and just kept hugging them,” the man said.

“I know many parents were up in arms about this, and every bitter-and-twisted exwife was using the old regulations to their advantage,” he said.

“You are accustomed to seeing your children every few days and then suddenly that all stops.

“You need some physical contact with a three-year-old boy.”

The father said he predicted the change was made as the government intended to increase the 21-day lockdown.

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday said a scientific assessment was expected to be released in the next few days that would show if the lockdown had worked.

Ramaphosa was responding to a question from a journalist who had asked about the possibility of the lockdown being extended. A Port Elizabeth woman — who also declined to be named — said the changes in rules meant nothing to her.

“My child will not be going anywhere,” she said.

“How do I know that other people living on the [other parent’s] property are Covid-19 free?

“How do I know that they have not come in contact with someone while out shopping without using proper precautions?” she said.

“This change is just plain dumb.

“It is opening us up to further disaster and spreading of the virus.”

A second woman said she was thrilled with the change.

“It is about time my ex-husband experiences what it is like to work and look after three children,” she said, declining to be named.

Another father said his soon-to-be ex-wife had taken their two children to the Karoo shortly after the schools were closed.

“Then suddenly the lockdown happens and I have not seen my children since March 18,” he said.

The man said the absence of his children had been tough.

“There is no-one to hug, there is no physical contact. “It is a lot to deal with.” He said once the lockdown ended he was jumping into his vehicle to fetch his children.