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.
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