Articulating common law and statutory parental responsibilities: regspraak

Clear law on parental obligations is essential for promoting the best interests of children. In chapter 3 of the Children's Act 38 of 2005 the legislature aimed to improve the pre-existing law in this field, which was mainly long-established common law. It grafted onto that law a concept of "parental responsibilities and rights". In so doing, it unfortunately failed to provide sufficient guidance on whether or when this statutory concept should replace or alternatively merely supplement the previous law.