Judgment from the Bloemfontein High Court concerning the care and primary residency of two young children. In terms of the parties’ settlement agreement incorporated into the divorce order of 26 October 2022, the children had their primary residency with the respondent. The applicant had approached the Children’s Court in November 2023 for a declaratory order that the children are in need of care and protection and should be placed in the temporary care of the applicant, and that an expert be appointed to investigate the children’s best interests. The application was postponed to January 2024 to allow a social worker to investigate.
After the Children’s Court proceedings were instituted, it came to light that one of the children had been sexually abused by a relative of the respondent, who was residing with the respondent and children with the applicant’s blessing. The applicant accused the respondent of neglect. The social worker’s report is still outstanding and the Children’s Court proceedings are not yet finalised, so the Court considered whether it could intervene at this stage. The Court determined that the respondent could not be blamed for the state of affairs as she was not aware of the abuse, and she had agreed to an investigation. Therefore the proceedings in the Children’s Court must be allowed to run their course, and the application was dismissed with no order as to costs.