05 Feb 2018

The Children’s Act aims to protect and guide children as opposed to pampering them into unrefined citizens.

Principal social welfare officer in the South East District Council, Ms Tuduetso Senthumuleng said this during a consultative meeting on the formation of the child protection committee in Tlokweng recently.

She said the Act did not prohibit parents from applying corporal punishment on their children.

Therefore, she called on parents to play their part and guide their children.

“What is key in the Act, is acting in the best interest of the child, which is not favouring the child,” she cautioned. Meanwhile, she said any form of abuse on children would not be condoned adding that the community should join hands in guiding and protecting children. Children are everyone’s business and every child matters,” she said.

South East District deputy district commissioner, Mr Richard Boitshwarelo said it was important for the community to understand that the best interest of the child  should not imply doing what the child wanted.

Rather, he said it meant doing what was beneficial to the child such as guiding and applying punishment when necessary.

Mr Boitshwarelo further pleaded with parents who share child custody to always act in the best interest of the child as opposed to using their children to settle scores.

He said each parent was allowed by the Act to be involved in the upbringing of the child.

He pointed out that there were  regrettable cases where culture was used to discourage fathers from having access to their children.

He added that such decisions were normally done without taking  the child’s interest into consideration.

Meanwhile, participants said there was need for more education on the Children’s Act.

They stressed that parents should be sensitised more about the Act.

They opined that children were more abreast with the Act than their parents, hence they manipulate it on their favour.

Others stated that the Children Act did not highlight the need to discipline the child.

Therefore, they said parents who applied corporal punishment on their chilldren were seen as abusers.

The participants stated that the Act considered abuse as the only thing that could destroy the child yet pampering the child could also produce ill-disciplined children. ENDS