Parents could be held responsible for damages their children cause to property and be forced to pay compensation or end up in jail.
Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams issued this caution as he tabled the Child Justice Bill, 2023 in the House of Assembly on Tuesday.
He said such a move was justified since it appeared that too many parents had abdicated their responsibilities.
“They let the children leave home, the children behave as they will, and the parents take no responsibility. When the children damage something, the parents ain’t to hear that they were not there, they didn’t tell the child to do it, them ain’t got nothing to do with that. So the victim who can’t enforce damages against a child is left without a remedy. Sir, not anymore,” Abrahams warned.
“So for all those who feel that being a parent is you get a child and that is the end of that, no. You need to participate in your child’s upbringing, you need to participate in supervising your child, you need to monitor what your child is doing. You need to pay attention to the child’s behaviour because you may be held responsible for it.”
Under Section 63 of the Child Justice Bill, where a court finds a child guilty of an offence against property or a person – and concludes that wilful failure on the part of the child’s parent or an appropriate adult to exercise proper care of or supervision over the child was likely to have substantially contributed to the commission of the offence – and that compensation should be paid, it “may decide to call on the parent or an appropriate adult to show cause, as directed by the court, why the parent of the child or an appropriate adult should not pay the compensation”.
“So, effectively, the court can give notice to the parents that you may be held liable, and the parents then have to appear to show cause why it should not be levied against them,” Abrahams explained.
“Where a parent has been delinquent, they are not monitoring their child…their poor exercise of control over their children or their negligence in respect of that child has resulted in damage to the property of another, or to the person of another, then that parent can be called upon to pay the damages and if they don’t pay the damages then you know the normal causes in relation to contempt of court and imprisonment then follow.”
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