A father from Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, will on Tuesday turn to the Pretoria High Court for an urgent order to have his two small children returned to him after claims that social services removed the children after his wife died, because he had not yet paid all his lobola.
The man, who cannot be identified to protect his children, filed papers against the Gauteng MEC for health and social development, the place of safety where his children are being held, the Minister of Safety and Security and a family member of his in-laws, whom he claimed first took the children to live with her.
The 31-year-old father works as a chef and said he is capable and able to care for his two daughters, aged two-and-a-half and 19 months. The mother of his children died in December of natural causes.
They had been living together since May 2004 and intended to get married. They raised their two children together in their home.
He said the first meeting for lobola negotiations between the families was conducted in July last year. They paid R200 to open negotiations and he undertook to pay R20 000 lobola in future. As is custom, a second meeting to conclude lobola negotiations was to be held later, but his partner had died in the meantime, he said.
The father said his children clung to him during the funeral and afterwards he took them to his mother’s home for emotional support during that difficult time.
About 10 days after the funeral he started to get phone calls from a family member of his in-laws urging him to pay lobola, he said.
His family confirmed their intention to honour their lobola commitments, but they asked for extra time to recover from their bereavement and to perform cultural cleansing rituals, he said.
Eight days later the family member arrived at his mother’s home to forcefully remove the children.
The children cried and he asked the police why the children were being taken away. “I was told because I was only a boyfriend and I was not entitled to anything.”
He said the family member who took the children, had never before featured in their lives.
The father said the Soshanguve Police Station later acknowledged they were wrong in the manner in which they had removed the children.
They then removed the children from the family member and placed them in a place of safety.
The father said he went to visit his children there and a social worker told him that he first had to pay the R20 000 lobola before he could get his children.
“I agreed to this as I was given no choice. The social worker threatened to retain the children indefinitely if I did not agree.”
The family member, he said, set April as a date for follow-up lobola negotiations, as her family were still in mourning.
The father was distressed about this, as it would mean his children would have to stay in an institution all this time.
He questioned how the lives of his children could be disrupted because his in-laws insisted on the lobola.
“The non-payment of lobola can never justify the decision to remove the children from my care.
“It is definitely not in the best interests of the children,” the father said.
He said that he intended to pay the lobola, but said his children should not be kept as ransom.
The authorities have not yet filed opposing papers.
It is not clear at this stage whether they will oppose the application. - Pretoria News