More places of safety needed in Malalane
There is a desperate need for more places of safety or safety parents in the Onderberg to take care of children who have to be removed from their homes.
MALALANE – According to Amanda de Swardt, a volunteer at the Malelane SAPS Victim Empowerment Centre, there have recently been cases where police had to remove children from their parents’ care, but did not have anywhere to place them.
Currently only Uthandiwe Children’s Home in Malalane is registered as a place of safety, but community members are reluctant to place children there due to its dilapidated condition.
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De Swardt said there are no shelters nor safe houses for battered women north of the N4 and that such a facility is sorely needed.
At a recent community safety meeting, she mentioned that she would like to establish a new shelter or place of safety for abused women and children in Malalane and surrounds but needed the community’s help. It would be ideal to get a piece of land, where a new facility could be built and all the relevant safety measures could be implemented.
Since teachers spend so much of their day around learners, they are sometimes the first to notice that a child is being abused or neglected. If they suspect something criminal is taking place, they are bound by law to report it.
Abuse includes
• Leaving a child without enough food, water, shelter and other basic necessities
• Exploiting a child or exposing them to circumstances where they could be exploited
• Exposing children to circumstances that can negatively affect their physical, psychological or social welfare
• Molestation, rape or forcing children to commit other sexual acts.
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Teachers should follow school protocol and report the matter to the relevant teacher, head of department or school social worker.
Their report should include the child’s name, address and contact details as well as those of their parents or guardian, the reason they are concerned and any documentation or statements made by the child relating to their abuse.
The next step is for the designated staff member, members of the community or family who have these suspicions, to contact a child protection association, social worker or police.
School staff are urged not to investigate the claims on their own, as this could jeopardise the case.
Once the social worker has investigated the claims, they can remove the child from their guardians’ or parents’ care if the child is in immediate danger by submitting form 36 at a police office. In the case of sexual abuse a J88 form will be submitted. The child will then be placed with safety parents or at a place of safety.
The social worker has 90 days to investigate the case and make a recommendation to the courts regarding where the child will be safest.
The child will need to undergo counselling to ensure that they deal with the trauma of the incident.
If the child has been placed in foster care, the court order is usually revised every two years. If the parents’ circumstances have improved and it is in the child’s best interest, the child can go back.
People who would like to be safety parents can apply to do so with the department of social services or other child protection organisations.
Parents will be thoroughly vetted and need to prove that they can provide children with a safe, stable and loving home.
Things work much the same in the case of a place of safety, but children stay there for a shorter period.
While children can stay in foster care for two years or longer, they only stay at a place of safety until the court decides where to place the child. According to the Children’s Act, this should be within six months.
For more information or advice on becoming a safety parent or place of safety, you can contact De Swardt on
072-371-8993.
