The social development department has moved to exclude all private professionals from adoption processes in SA by drafting proposals that will make it illegal for them to charge a fee for their services.
Proposed amendments to legislation regarding the banning of fees were gazetted in October, with 30 days for public comment. But adoption experts have accused the department of using “stealth” to push the amendments through.
They say they would have gone unnoticed had they not been raised by attendees at a recent meeting hosted by the department. A petition to extend the date for public comment to the end of January has been signed by more than 9,300 people.
Department spokesperson Lumka Oliphant said not enough effort was being made to keep children with their biological families.
However, adoption and children’s rights attorney Debbie Wybrow labelled the move “state capture”, saying it would result in the closure of many, if not all, child protection and other professional organisations that who had decades of experience in working with children in need.
Read the full story in the Sunday Times.
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