This comes in the wake of a ruling by the Western Cape High Court in favour of their Cape Town based father. GroundUp reports the Department of Social Development led by Minister, Lindiwe Zulu, opposed the urgent court application that the children, ages seven and ten, be transported between provinces, during lockdown. The department was however found wanting in its argument before Judge Shenaz Meer, who ruled in favour of the children’s parent on 8 April.

The Department argued the divorced parents of the children delayed in having the children moved home, opting to do so on 6 April and not before the lockdown kicked in on 26 March.

Zulu’s department further maintained that the subsequent amendment to the department’s lockdown regulations that allowed children to be moved between the homes of separated parents did not apply to this situation, seeing as the children were in Bloemfontein with their grandparents, categorised as caregivers. 

In her judgment Meer, stressed that it was not clear why Zulu’s amended directive did not allow for movement of children between caregivers and ruled that it should. 

The grandparents reported that they were too old to care for the children for an extended period, and the children also wanted to go home. GroundUp does not indicate when the children officially left Bloemfontein.

OFM News