South Africa's highest court deals a mortal blow to the common-law defence of parental authority to administer reasonable and moderate correction: Reflecting on the case of Freedom of Religion SA v Minister of Justice and Others 2020 (1) SA1 (CC)

Die regsdebat oor die geldigheid van die gemeenregtelike verweer waaroor ouers tot onlangs nog binne die Suid-Afrikaanse regstelsel beskik het, naamlik die bevoegdheid tot redelike en matige tugtiging van hulle kinders, word al meer as 'n honderd jaar lank in Suid-Afrika gevoer. Nieteenstaande die lang duur van die debat en die belangrike uitwerking van die staatsregtelike ontwikkeling in Suid-Afrika onder die Grondwet van die RSA, 1996, in samehang met die vereistes van die internasionale reg, het daar eers in September 2019 regsekerheid oor dié bepaalde regsvraag gekom. In Freedom of Religion SA v Minister of Justice and Others het die Konstitusionele Hof, Suid-Afrika se hoogste hof, beslis dat die gemeenregtelike verweer van ouerlike bevoegdheid tot redelike en matige tugtiging van hulle kinders, selfs in hulle private wonings, ongrondwetlik en derhalwe ongeldig is. Ná opweging van al die mededingende belange en regte van sowel ouers as hulle kinders kom die hof tot die finale beslissing dat daar regtens geen regverdiging meer bestaan vir die voortgesette behoud van fisieke ouerlike tugtiging nie, selfs nie eens op grond van godsdienstige riglyne nie, en derhalwe ook nie vir die volgehoue inbreukmaking op die regte van kinders wat aan sodanige tugtigingspraktyke blootgestel word nie. Tensy daar ander regswysigings binne die Suid-Afrikaanse regstelsel aangebring word, beteken hierdie beslissing van die hof dat die toediening deur ouers van redelike en matige fisieke tugtiging aan hulle kinders 'n finale doodskoot gekry het. The debate in legal circles in South Africa about the lawfulness of the common-law defence, until recently available to parents, of parental entitlement to administer moderate and reasonable chastisement to their children has been going on for more than a hundred years. Notwithstanding the long duration of the debate and the important effect of the constitutional developments in South Africa under the Constitution of the RSA, 1996, in conjunction with the requirements of international law, legal certainty about this particular legal question was only achieved in September 2019. In Freedom of Religion SA v Minister of Justice and Others, the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa, decided that the common-law defence of parental authority to administer moderate and reasonable chastisement to their children, even in the privacy of their own homes, is unconstitutional and therefore invalid. After weighing up all competing interests and rights of both parents and their children, the court came to the final conclusion that no lawful justification remains for the retention of the defence of parental entitlement to administer physical chastisement to their children, not even on religious grounds, and that the limitation of the rights of children who are subjected to such practices are unjustified and not legally permissible. Unless legal amendments are effected in South Africa in the future, this decision of the court dealt parents' entitlement to administer moderate and reasonable chastisement to their children a mortal blow.