Pretoria - The Department of Social Development has lost its Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, bid to appeal against an order issued in October to reinstate a well-known Christian organisation’s accreditation as a child protection entity.
Judge Anthony Millar earlier found that the department had acted with an “ulterior purpose” in simply withdrawing the status of the Christelike Maatskaplike Raad North.
Judge Millar, in his order for the department to reinstate the organisation’s child protection status, at the time also awarded a punitive costs order against the department, saying: “I am satisfied that the conduct of the department falls sufficiently short of that which is expected of it … ”
The department withdrew the status following an investigation after eight complaints about the conduct of social workers at the organisation.
It then lodged an application for leave to appeal against the judgment, and said that another court should have a second look at the issues. It argued that Judge Millar erred on several aspects of his judgment.
In delivering his judgment on these issues on Friday, the judge found that no other court would come to a different finding.
“I am not persuaded that another court would come to a different conclusion or that there is some other compelling reason why leave to appeal should be granted,” Judge Millar said.
As in the original application, the judge also ordered that the department foot the legal bill for the failed leave to appeal application.
The accreditation of the organisation as a child protection service was withdrawn by the department following several allegations by parents and other parties on how it handled some of its cases.
The organisation, however, said the department simply listened to complaints without affording it the opportunity to defend the matter.
The department said it investigated the claims, which included a departmental quality assurance process.
The investigation centred on eight separate cases in which complaints had been received from families with whom it had dealt.
The complaints included that children were being given away for adoption on the pretext of it being in the best interests of the child, and that there was a breakdown of the relationship of trust between the biological families and social workers.
While only 8.4% of the cases handled by the organisation were considered, the department concluded that all court orders issued by the children’s court regarding the organisation had to be reviewed.
Besides the eight complaints investigated, the department also received a letter from the police requesting information to assist it with an investigation regarding a complaint relating to illegal adoptions, allegedly connected to the organisation.
The judge said notwithstanding that, the organisation placed in issue the serious unsubstantiated allegations that had been made against it, but the department persisted in accepting uncritically the veracity of such allegations without affording it any fair or reasonable opportunity to have the allegations fully investigated and considered before the withdrawal of its accreditation.
The judge, however, said no matter what the findings by the court, the serious allegations against the organisation had to be urgently and properly investigated.
He ordered that a copy of his judgment issued in October be sent to the SA Human Rights Commission to establish whether the allegations levelled against the Christelike Maatskaplike Raad North were true, and for it to look into the conduct of the department.
Pretoria News