A Durban father's fight to have his daughter seen by a district surgeon or have police take action against her mother, has thrust the spotlight on the rights of single or divorced fathers.
The father, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his minor daughter, said it took almost a month for police to furnish him with a CAS number.
He claimed that when he fetched his daughter, she revealed that she had been assaulted by her mother.
"She could not sit back on the seat and put on her seatbelt because she had marks on her back. She also had marks on her thigh and told me that her mother had punched her," the father said.
He said he'd taken the girl to a private doctor for treatment for a cold and asked the doctor to check the bruises on her body.
"The doctor confirmed that the marks were from an assault and told me I had a case for child abuse," the father said.
He added that he was advised that the girl should be assessed by a district surgeon and has been trying for nearly a month to have police assist him.
The father told IOL that he has been back and forth with officials from various police stations, and despite an interdict and a warrant of arrest, as well as an official statement from the child, taken by police, the mother remains at large.
He added that he has since requested the child be moved to a different school and the mother refuses to hand over the girl's birth certificate.
"It has been a month and my daughter has not been in school. I have managed to secure her a place in a school closer to where I live, but I am waiting for the birth certificate so all this time she has not been in school," he said.
IOL has sent emails to KZN SAPS for comment on the status of the matter but has not received a response.
Another father who spoke to IOL claimed that he was assaulted by police after his wife claimed that he was abusive.
“I spent four nights at Westville prison until I was granted bail. She later withdrew the case and was granted a protection order. She has since run away, leaving the children with me,” he said.
Chairperson of The Official Fathers 4 Justice South Africa, Gary da Silva, said government is fully aware that fathers' rights are being obliterated.
"This is state-sanctioned legalised child abuse. Fathers are not the problem. I have been involved in this fight for the last 25 years, and there is a deliberate plan to obliterate fathers' rights. The president goes on record saying that we live in a fatherless society, but we have fathers fighting for months for the right to access their children," he said.
Da Silva said the issue has been created by the State. He called for amendments to be made to the Marriage Act, the Traditional Marriages Act and the Divorce Act.
"Government has ignored this problem. Dads' rights are completely obliterated," he said.
Da Silva said in many divorce cases, the court focuses on the rights of the mother. He said in some instances, the father is expected to give the mother the quality of life she was accustomed to when they were married, often outweighing the mother's wants versus needs, at the cost of the child.
Casto Musinyali, chairperson of the We Are Fathers We Are Parents Forum, said the unwillingness of authorities to observe equal parental rights and shared parenting is the source of the problem.
"Authorities are forced to defend the deficient parental plans that they developed, and as a result, they mobilised all institutions to dismiss the plight of fathers to be part of their children’s lives,“ he said.
Musinyali, who shared a number of cases he is currently involved in with IOL, said family advocates and social workers’ recommendations are automatically biased.
“Courts enforce the biased recommendations. Police don’t want to enforce arrest warrants against contravening mothers, and the National Prosecuting Authority does not want to prosecute contempting mothers. Chapter 9 institutions don’t want to rebuke state organs for violating rights of fathers and the best interests of the child. It is chaos, and the victim thereof is the child,” he said.
IOL