`Mom took kids to US without dads` say`

Source: The Mercury, 14/01/2016

14 January 2016 – The Mercury
Durban - A Durban attorney is questioning how a KwaZulu-Natal mother
of two apparently went on holiday to the US with her two children
without the consent of their fathers – both his clients – as is now
required by law.


The Department of Home Affairs says it will now investigate the
matter, which left the fathers "dumbfounded" after they saw pictures
posted on social media of their children travelling on a plane and
then posing at a tourist attraction in the US.


Attorney Roger Knowles, who acts for both fathers, said his clients
lived overseas and were now remarried with other children.


One was previously married to the mother of his son, now 11 years old.
The other never married the mother of his daughter, now 8, but
qualifies in terms of South African law for full parental
responsibilities and rights.


"In both cases, the children have the surnames of their fathers and
their fathers are named on their birth certificates. Although both
have been paying maintenance, neither is permitted by the mother of
the children to have normal contact with them. Both have launched
proceedings in terms of the Hague Convention against Child Abduction
to obtain high court orders for contact. Documents are soon to be
served on the mother," he said.


Knowles said in December that his clients both received a copy of a
photograph posted on Facebook by a person not known to them, showing
the mother and the two children on board an aircraft apparently bound
for the US. A couple of weeks later, the second photograph was sent
showing the mother and children at a tourist attraction in the US.


"Neither knew that their children were going overseas and neither had
given consent as is required in terms of the Children`s Act and,
indeed, the regulations which have caused such a furore with travel
agents and people who travel in and out of South Africa with
children."


Knowles was referring to the new Home Affairs regulations introduced
in June last year which dictate that a child must travel with an
unabridged birth certificate bearing both parents` names and with a
consenting affidavit from any non-travelling parent.


Knowles also said that parental consent was required for visas for
children. "One has to ask how safe are South African children if it is
this easy for a mother to leave the country with two children, neither
of whom even has the same surname as she does," he said.
Contacted for comment, Home Affairs requested further details in order
to investigate.


The Mercury has reported on several matters in which parents have been
forced to turn to high courts in order to comply with the regulations.
Last year, a father of a 3-year-old boy obtained an urgent order
compelling the child`s mother to give him her written consent to take
the child on a 10-day holiday.


In another matter, a Hillcrest attorney sought an order against the
director-general of Home Affairs directing that he issue her
14-year-old daughter`s unabridged birth certificate that she had
applied for four years previously and without which she could not
travel.


A "public interest" test case aimed at scrapping the regulation in its
entirety is pending before the Durban High Court. The matter was
brought by a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal who obtained
an interim order allowing her children to travel in and out of South
Africa without the written consent of their father, who has virtually
no contact with the children.


However, the minister of Home Affairs is opposing a broader order.
The Mercury