The Independent Democrats also welcomes the fact that loopholes covering backdoor intercountry adoptions have been closed and we hold the belief that all efforts must be made to place children in South African families first. ID also supports the criminalizing of child trafficking as contained in this bill. This is an international scourge which South Africa needs to play its part in eradicating. The one issue which ID has concerns over, however, is the fact that guardianship issues are still the exclusive domain of the high court. Many poor families cannot afford the expensive legal costs associated with the high court and ID would have liked to have seen this issue addressed.

ID strongly supports the attention given to children with disabilities in this bill, and notes with satisfaction that the bill stipulates that their interests have to be taken into consideration in departmental planning. We hope that this progressive attitude will now also extend to the issue of inclusive education, so that more disabled children can obtain the education they are entitled to.

Finally madam speaker, it needs to be said that this bill has to be put within the context of grinding poverty that many of our children and families have to endure. Children’s rights can only be effectively realized if we take strong action to addressing the underlying poverty of our society. The ID therefore once again renews it call to extend the Child Support Grant to all children under the age of 18. This is in keeping with the constitutional definition of children, and it will go a long way in extending a social security net to many impoverished families.

I thank you.