The South African family law at the cross-roads

Abstract

During the past decades South African family life has undergone vast changes. Initially, family relationships were of a patriarchal type. When more and more people became urbanised the stable nuclear family system started disintegrating and in its place one now finds: many single-parent families, 'concubinage' childless relationships, same-sex 'marriage' relationships, dysfunctional families, parents and children who suffer from aids, families living in informal settlements, grandparents taking over the parental role. The theme of this paper is to discuss the custody of children in these circumstances. When parties divorce, the legal process steps in and tries to rearrange the deckchairs. The process is fine, but in practice the implementation is palliative. The implementation occurs in a changing South African society.