{"id":772,"date":"2016-04-07T11:16:57","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T09:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/?p=772"},"modified":"2016-04-07T11:16:57","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T09:16:57","slug":"unmarried-fathers-rights-and-responsibilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/2016\/04\/07\/unmarried-fathers-rights-and-responsibilities\/","title":{"rendered":"UNMARRIED FATHERS – RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"unmarrieddad\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When and how does a child\u2019s unmarried biological father acquire full parental rights and responsibilities? \u00a0A recent Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) decision illustrates.<\/p>\n

Out of Africa \u2013 a baby taken overseas without the father\u2019s consent<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The mother of a four month old child relocated with him to England without either informing, or seeking permission from, the father<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The parents had never been married to each other, nor did they cohabit or live together in a permanent life partnership<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The father applied to the English courts for an order that the child be returned to South Africa, and a local High Court had to determine whether or not the child\u2019s removal was lawful<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On appeal, the SCA agreed with the High Court that the removal was unlawful in that it had breached the father\u2019s rights as a guardian – you need permission from all of a child\u2019s guardians, or from a court, to get a child\u2019s passport or to take it out of the country.<\/p>\n

The three requirements to become a guardian\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong> In summary, our Children\u2019s Act automatically recognises an unmarried father as a guardian if he \u2013<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Consents to be identified as the child\u2019s father,<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Contributes, or attempts in good faith to contribute, to the child\u2019s upbringing for a reasonable period, and<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Contributes, or attempts in good faith to contribute, towards expenses in connection with the maintenance of the child for a reasonable period.<\/p>\n

The mother, held the Court, had actively frustrated the father\u2019s efforts at fatherhood, refusing for example to allow him to be present at the birth and then restricting his access to the child. \u00a0Moreover the father had visited and interacted with the child regularly, introduced him to his extended family, taken out an endowment policy to cater for his future upbringing, and contributed financially. On these facts, the father was indeed a co-guardian with full parental rights and responsibilities, and accordingly the child\u2019s removal from South Africa had been unlawful.<\/p>\n

Source: LawDotNews – May 2015<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When and how does a child\u2019s unmarried biological father acquire full parental rights and responsibilities? \u00a0A recent Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) decision illustrates. Out of Africa \u2013 a baby taken overseas without the father\u2019s consent 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The mother of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[12,25,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":774,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions\/774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthonywhatmore.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}