UK couples win bid to adopt black kids

Two South African toddlers will soon start new lives in the UK after their prospective adoptive parents won a court battle with KwaZulu-Natal social development officials — a ruling that could pave the way for future cross-border adoptions.

But another British couple who were part of the same application in the High Court in Durban are still in legal limbo because the department continues to oppose their bid to adopt a two-year-old.

The Sunday Times is aware of five couples in Canada and another in Europe who have hit a brick wall in attempts to adopt black children living in children's homes around Durban.

A source in the social development department said "there are sensitivities with international adoptions" and with African children being adopted by families in non-African countries.

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The provincial head of social development, Nokuthula Khanyile, said: "The procedure is closely regulated by and prescribed by the Children's Act and the department intends complying therewith."

The court application, which came before Judge Jacqueline Henriques recently, was launched by three couples: Shereen Haffejee and her husband Martin Mathias, both psychiatrists; Nikki and Stephen Mepham, who are both doctors; and public relations executive Jonita Otto-Richardson and her businessman husband Marcus Richardson. All the couples have ties to South Africa.

In their affidavits they said they had gone through the rigorous process — governed by local and international law — to adopt the three unrelated children, all of whom are about two years old and were apparently abandoned at birth.

The final step is approval by the Children's Court. This application has to be accompanied by a letter of support from Khanyile — but the couples claim she refused to provide one, without saying why.

When the matter came before Henriques, Khanyile agreed to recommend adoptions by Haffejee and Mathias and the Richardsons.

But her lawyers asked that the Mepham application be postponed so they could file papers explaining her stance.