Judge turns down dad’s bid to take kids to live with him in the UK
A JUDGE has ordered that 10-year-old twins stay in South Africa with their mother, rather than moving to the UK with their father.
The children said they had such a good time during a two-week holiday in the UK that they would not mind living there.
A judge sitting in the Western Cape High Court, however, said the children might be disappointed by this decision, particularly given their fantasy view of life in the UK.
“But I am persuaded that, as difficult as this is, it is the correct one to make.”
The father is British and the mother a Zimbabwean national. They, together with the children, have permanent residence in South Africa. The parents are no longer together and the father decided to go and work in Manchester. He has been there for a while now, working, but he wants his children to join him.
As the mother does not want her children to move to the UK with their father, he turned to the court for an order allowing him to take the children to live there with him and his fiancée.
In turning down his application, the judge voiced several concerns about them relocating, and said a twoweek fun holiday in another country was a lot different from the realities of living there – especially without their mother.
The parties had been sharing custody, with the children alternating between their mother’s and father’s homes every two weeks, and later on a week on, week off basis. The children adapted to the arrangement and became comfortable, until the father left for the UK recently.
The father said it would be best for the children to live in the UK, as he could take better care of them than the mother could.
He asserted that the benefits for the children if they were permitted to relocate were automatic access to free education and health care.
The father claimed he was unable to pay for the children’s continued private school education and would be unable to honour his maintenance obligation if they remained with the mother.
A forensic and clinical social worker conducted an assessment regarding the children’s proposed relocation, and the family advocate was authorised to conduct a parallel investigation.
They emphasised that it was crucial the children be ensured regular contact with the mother if a relocation was granted. But the judge said the mother lacked the financial resources to travel to the UK regularly basis.
The father said if he did not have to pay maintenance, he could save money to allow the children to visit their mother once a year. He could then also pay for her to come and see them in the UK once a year.
The court also heard the views of the children, through the experts. Both said they loved their mother and did not want to be separated from her. But, on the other hand, they adored their father and also wanted to be with him.
One of the twins said she liked the UK more than South Africa and Australia, where they lived for a while. “I like snow and it snows in the UK,” the child said.
The judge said: “That the children have a fantasy idea about life in the UK, based solely on a two-week fun holiday, is evident. Children’s voices must of course be heard, but they must equally be considered in context when evaluating the weight to be attached to them.”
Judge Cloete added that it was apparent that neither of these children had the slightest comprehension of what it would be like to live permanently in a strange country thousands of kilometres away from their mother, with extremely limited contact at best.
She said there was also simply no assurance that the father would not up and move again. If a relocation was permitted, this would have the potential consequence that the children would be uprooted elsewhere with absolutely no guarantee of regular contact with the mother, the judge said in turning down the father’s application.