Unmarried Fathers

THE POSITION OF UNMARRIED FATHERS IN SOUTH AFRICA: AN INVESTIGATION WITH REFERENCE TO A CASE STUDY

I declare that “The Position of Unmarried Fathers in South Africa: An Investigation with Reference to a Case Study” is my own work and that all sources that I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by means of complete references.

_________________________ Yulie Panayiota Paizes

THE POSITION OF UNMARRIED FATHERS IN SOUTH AFRICA: AN INVESTIGATION WITH REFERENCE TO A CASE STUDY

by

YULIE PANAYIOTA PAIZES

submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTERS IN LAW SPECIALISING IN FAMILY LAW

at the

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA

PROMOTER: PROFESSOR JM KRUGER

NOVEMBER 2006

SUMMARY This dissertation looks at the position of the unmarried father in South Africa with regard to obtaining access to his illegitimate child. The writer has focused on three distinct eras in South African family law: the position of unmarried fathers in terms of: the common law; Natural Fathers of Children Born out of Wedlock Act; and the Children’s Act. The writer has further focused on a case study. This is to emphasis the difficulty which unmarried fathers have when attempting to go through the courts to have access to his child. In terms of South African common law, fathers of illegitimate children did not have any form of parental authority over the child. The mothers of illegitimate children have full parental authority over such children. Access in terms of South African commonlaw is seen as an incident of parental authority. Unmarried fathers nevertheless had the right to approach the high court to obtain access to their children, if the mother of the child refuses to allow the father to have such access. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, there was an overwhelming amount of applications brought by unmarried fathers in the high courts so as to obtain access to their illegitimate children. The case of Van Erk v Holmer...