• Legal adoptions
• Who can adopt a child?
• When is adoption not necessary?
• Are inter-country adoptions possible?
• HIV/AIDS and adoption
• Where to go to start adoption proceedings
• Major welfare adoption agencies
• Some welfare agencies involved in fostering
• The adoption process
• Helpful hints
• Cancelling an adoption

It is illegal to attempt to become a child's "permanent" parent in any other way than through the adoption process. Becoming a child's foster parent involves another process, which is discussed here. To pay a woman for her child is a crime.

Only children made available for adoption may be adopted. For example, a child whose parents are both dead or who has been abandoned is available for adoption. Where the parents are alive and can be found, they must both consent to the adoption. Any child under 18 years can be adopted.

Open adoptions are adoptions where the identities of the various parties are known to each other. For example, where other family members of a child, adopt the child.

With closed adoptions, identities of the parties are not known from the start of the process. Closed adoptions are usually done through accredited welfare agencies or private practitioners. The social worker involved in this process may advise the parties to consider sharing their identities with each other in the best interests of the child, for example, to ensure that they retain contact with their culture and roots.

• A married couple can jointly adopt a child.
• Partners in a life-partnership (including same-sex partners) can jointly adopt a child.
• A person who has married a natural parent of a child can adopt the child (adoption of a step-child).
• A single person (a widow or widower or an unmarried or divorced person) can adopt a child as a single person.

The biological father of a child born to an unmarried woman may apply to adopt a child. However, it is not necessary for the father to adopt the child if he marries the mother of the child either after or before the birth, as the marriage will confer on him the rights and obligations normally associated with the children of a marriage.

A child born as the result of artificial insemination of a married woman is automatically the child of that woman and her husband. The husband does not need to adopt the child.

Currently, a child born from a surrogate mother is the birth mother's child and must be adopted by the commissioning parents. However, in terms of the Children's Act, likely to be implemented in 2008, a child born from a court-confirmed surrogate-motherhood agreement will automatically be the child of the commissioning parents.

In the past, adoption by a non-citizen of a child born of a South African citizen in South Africa was possible only if the non-citizen qualified for naturalisation as a South African citizen. South African courts also had no legal power to undertake adoption procedures in respect of non-South African children by South Africans.

However, South Africa has now signed an international convention on inter-country adoptions. The Children's Act, likely to be implemented in 2008, sets out the procedure for inter-country adoptions.

To legalise any inter-country adoptions it is important that social workers liaise directly with the Registrar of Adoptions in Pretoria via the Departmental Provincial Head Office with the Affiliated Bureau for International Social Services (ISS) in South Africa.

Registrar of Adoptions, Department of Social Development (National)
Ms Marike Bloem / Ms Rose Mnisi
Private Bag X901, Pretoria, 0001
Tel: 012 312 7593
Fax. 012 323 3733
marikeb@socdev.gov.za / rosina.mnisi@socdev.gov.za

Affiliated Bureau for International Social Services
Mrs Francis Viviers / Mrs Carol Churchill
Tel: 012 312 7790

The status of the child

Prospective parents often want to know whether the child they are going to adopt is HIV positive. The law does not require the adoption agency to tell the parents this, but some adoption agencies will disclose this.

The status of the adoptive parents

There are three major accredited agencies in the Western Cape - the ACVV, BADISA, and Child Welfare. You can contact their head offices to find one of their service offices near you. Please be aware that all these agencies charge a fee, based on the income of the prospective adoptive parent(s), that goes towards administrative expenses relating to the adoption.

You can also contact your local district office of the Department of Social Development for welfare agencies in your area. Social workers from these offices often handle stepparents' adoptions themselves. They also compile home study report on an applicant's social circumstances, if asked to do so.

Some welfare agencies involved in fostering placements may also, usually in the case of open adoptions, assist with arranging an adoption. (Closed adoption - where the identity of the parties remains unknown - is usually done through the major welfare agencies.)

Currently, registered social workers in private practice may also provide an adoption service, but you will need to pay a fee. However, when the Children's Act is implemented (probably 2008), social workers in private practice will no longer be able to do adoptions unless they are also formally registered as child-protection organisations.

Your local doctor or health care worker may also be able to assist you with contact numbers.

ACVV (Afrikaanse Christelike Vroue Vereniging)
61 Caledon Street, Zonnebloem, Cape Town, 8001
Tel: 021 461 7437
Fax: 021 461 0074

BADISA (The former Diakonale Dienste amalgamated with the former Christelike Maatskaplike Raad (CMR))
11 Pastorie Street, or Private Bag X8, Bellville, 7535
Tel: 021 957 7130
Fax: 021 957 7131
badisa@kaapkerk.co.za

Child Welfare Adoption Centre
(formerly at 13 Electric Road, Wynberg, 7800)
(associated with Cape Town Child Welfare)
Lower Klipfontein Road, Gatesville, Athlone, 7764
Tel: 021 638 3127
Fax: 021 638 5277
Email: information@helpkids.org.za

CAFDA (Cape Flats Development Association)
Corner Retreat Road and Prince George Drive, Retreat, 7945
PO Box 211, Retreat, 7965
Tel: 021 706 2050
Fax: 021 706 0756
CAFDA@iafrica.com

Communicare
2 Roggebaai Square, Cape Town, 8001
or PO Box 259, Cape Town, 8000
Tel: 021 421 6008
Fax. 021 421 6094
Contact Communicare Community Development Centres for fostering services.

Jewish Community Services
9 Gorge Road, Highlands, 8001
Tel: 021 462 5520
Fax. 021 462 5866

The adoption process is a long and complex process.

First you apply to an adoption agency or social worker.

A social worker from the agency will assess your suitability as a prospective adoptive parent.

If you have made contact with a mother who wishes to give up her child for adoption, without going through an agency, you should contact a social worker to help you to ensure that the adoption is legal.

When the agency finds a child for you to adopt, you should apply to the Children's Court in the district in which the child lives.

The Children's Court will hold a formal court hearing that is closed to the public. The Commissioner of child welfare will hold the hearing. You must satisfy the Commissioner that you:

• Have a good reputation
• Are fit to have custody of the child
• Can support the child
• Can educate the child.

The social worker will report to the Commissioner, confirming that they think you are suitable.

The Commissioner will look at the religion, culture and race of the child's natural parents and its adoptive parents. The Commissioner does not have to match these things. The best interests of the child are most important.

The natural parents must sign a consent form.

Usually your names as the adoptive parents are filled in on the consent form but you can have a closed adoption. This means the adoptive parents and the natural parents agree, through the social worker, that the natural parents will not know the names of the adoptive parents.

If the Commissioner is satisfied, an adoption order will be issued. The adoption order might only be issued months after you first apply, so be prepared for a time consuming process.

• Make sure that the adoption agency you choose has post-adoption support facilities if you are adopting a special needs child (e.g. A disabled child or a child who has been sexually abused).
• Check the credentials and qualifications of the social worker.
• Ask what fees you will be required to pay. You may be asked to pay the hospital fees of the mother and child.
• Never pay birth parents directly. This is illegal.

The natural parents, adoptive parents or the Minister of Social Development can apply to the Children's Court to cancel an adoption within two years of the date of the adoption.

A cancellation can only be applied for if:

• The adoption is not in the interests of the child.
• The child was mentally ill at the time of the adoption and the adoptive parents did not know this.
• There was some fraud or mistake that persuaded the adoptive parents to adopt the child.
• The natural parents did not give proper consent.

Adoption agencies have a child-oriented approach to adoptions, which means they focus on the needs of children rather than on the needs of childless couples.

Prospective adoptive parents are carefully screened and receive intensive training to help them with childcare, child management and parenting skills and to meet the challenges of adoption. Community volunteers may be actively involved in providing both training and additional support.