Francesca Villette
JUDGMENT handed down in the Western Cape High Court, that the provincial government should reconsider the placement of vulnerable children, is just the beginning of long-term strategic talks on the treatment of children at risk.
This is according to Ottery Youth Care and Education Centre chairperson Azeem Badroodien.
Four months ago, the Justice Alliance of SA (Jasa), along with the governing body of the Ottery Youth Care and Education Centre, took the provincial departments of Social Development and Education, the national Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, and the respective MECs and minister to court to have the decision to close four child and youth care centres in the province, which housed about 134 children, reversed.
Die Bult Centre in the Central Karoo, the Eureka Centre in the Cape Winelands, the Ottery Youth Care and Education Centre, and the Wellington Youth Centre were closed in 2000 and then re-established as public schools.
John Smyth, executive director of Jasa, said the children were then sent to centres which catered for sentenced or awaiting-trial children.
Judge Gayaat Salie-Hlophe said this decision amounted to a flagrant disregard for the constitution.
The respondents submitted that the children would be cared for and housed separately, as the Children’s Act did provide for such an arrangement.
Badroodien said the judgment was a relief.
“We are happy, but it is by no means the end of the road.”
Social Development MEC Albert Fritz’s spokesperson, Sihle Ngobese, said yesterday their management had still not met their legal representatives. On Tuesday Ngobese said provincial government, through its lawyers, was studying the judgment and further steps would be taken.
The principals of Die Bult Centre, Eureka Centre and the Ottery Youth Care and Education Centre said they would also consider the judgments.