A blind father has finally been reunited with his nine-month-old daughter after a bitter legal battle.
And now lawyers want the courts to prevent social workers from taking children away from their biological parents on flimsy grounds.
The girl was taken away from her father in November last year, shortly after her mother's funeral.
The father, who can't be named to protect the child, looked after his sickly wife during the months preceding her death and also cared for the baby and his wife's two teenage children.
A social worker, however, decided to remove the children ostensibly because the father is blind. It was stated during children's court proceedings that he did not have the financial means to look after the children.
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The father said the two teenagers could make up their own minds about whether they wanted to return to him, but he wanted his baby back.
The children were placed into the care of his sister-in-law.
"I may be blind and I may not be rich. But I love my child with all my heart and I make ends meet as I am a first-class handyman. I can do anything, even fix computers," he said.
The man said that during the children's court proceedings an official commented: "He can't even walk into court on his own, how can he take care of his baby?"
Lawyers for Human Rights and local attorney Louise du Plessis, with the financial help of the SA National Council of the Blind (SANCB), took on the father's case.
SANCB also arranged for an assessment of the blind father's ability to function independently.
This was done by two social workers - a blind professor and an occupational therapist.
SANCB said it opposed any attempt to discriminate against the human rights of blind people.
Judge Pierre Rabie at the time commented that financial difficulty was never a reason for keeping the child from her biological father.
He also said there was nothing to suggest that the man was a bad father.
He turned down an application by the baby's relatives, who tried to keep the baby from returning to her father.
Experts met before the child was handed over to her father to make the process easier for the child.
It was decided that the parties would all attend counselling and that the relatives may visit the baby.
"I am delighted. I can't believe my baby is back. She is happy and coping well. The fight to get her was worth it," the father said.
He has remarried in the meantime to a woman he met through his church. She is helping to look after the child.
The father said his new wife worked with children at an aftercare centre every day.
Meanwhile, Du Plessis said she had received instructions from her client to lay a charge against the social worker who removed the child.
She said the discretion of social workers in terms of the Child Care Act is extremely wide.
"While it may be necessary to remove children from the care of their parents in most cases, there are instances where they exercise this discretion very poorly - like in this case.
"We would like the council governing social workers to investigate this matter," Du Plessis said.
The lawyers are also looking into the possibility of approaching the court to establish guidelines on how social workers should exercise their discretion.
Du Plessis said the moment a social worker was confronted with something different - blindness in this case - the first reaction is to remove the child.
She said first ordering an investigation in the matter would be a lot less painful for all concerned.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Pretoria News on March 03, 2008
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