Johannesburg High Court issues landmark ruling on paternal leave
Following a ruling by the Johannesburg High Court, fathers in South Africa will now be eligible for up to four months of parental leave, along with benefits.
The case was brought to court by a South African couple who wanted to take parental leave to spend time with their newborn baby.
“The application was launched by Werner van Wyk and his spouse, Ika van Wyk. During Mrs van Wyk's pregnancy, Mr van Wyk applied to his employer for the 4-month maternity leave benefit. The employer refused on the basis that its maternity leave policy did not provide for persons other than the birthing mother to receive the maternity leave benefit,” South African law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyer in a statement said.
Bafana Khumalo, co-executive director of Sonke Gender Justice, a South African gender rights organization also said in a statement, “We welcome this landmark judgement which is contributing to growing our jurisprudence on the quest for shared care work in families. Although we did not get all that we prayed for, we are nevertheless gratified that the court was persuaded on the key asks by the legal teams. This is groundbreaking and will go a long way in influencing a positive attitude towards shared care work.’’
As of 2021, The Gambia, Kenya, Seychelles, South Africa, and South Sudan are the five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to offer fathers 14 leave days, which is the most among the 48 nations in the region. Twenty of the countries in the region do not have laws that grant fathers paternity leave, according to a 2022 World Bank report.
