Children can be removed from their parents if they are abused, neglected or abandoned.

1. Who can foster a child?
2. What are the rights and responsibilities of a foster parent?
3. What financial support is there for foster parents?
4. Fostering and HIV/AIDS
5. How do you apply to be a foster parent?
6. What legal processes do you go through (if any)?

Welfare organisations screen applicants to ensure that they are suitable to be foster parents.

Factors taken into account in the screening include the age of the prospective foster parents, their health, the family composition and income, the suitability of accommodation, the general environment and closeness of schools and public transport.

Other aspects considered are the prospective foster parents' views about child rearing and education, their ability to accept responsibility, their attitude towards the natural parents, and their motivation to foster a child who is not their own despite the temporary nature of the placement.

However, the choice of foster home for a particular child depends on the needs of a child. For example, if a particular child is already acquainted with and emotionally attached to a particular foster parent candidate, this will be an important factor. Religious and cultural factors will also be considered for each child.

Foster parents are supervised by social workers. Foster parents have the obligation to:

• Maintain and care for the child.
• Grant reasonable access to the child's parents.

Placement in foster care gives foster parents custody over the child, which includes the right to discipline the child. However, this does NOT include the power to:

• Deal with any property belonging to the child.
• Consent to the marriage of the child.
• Consent to an operation or medical treatment of the child that involves serious danger to life.

Foster parents may not remove a child out of South Africa without the approval of the Provincial MEC for Social Developent/Minister for Social Development.

The child is maintained by means of a foster child grant paid by the state to the foster parents.

The natural parents of the child also have a duty to contribute to the child's maintenance, through an order of court called a contribution order.

Fostering is usually for a short period so children are not tested for HIV before they are fostered.

If a child is under 14 and his or her HIV status is known, this can be told to the foster parents.

The screening of foster parents is done by social workers. At the Children's Court hearing, the social worker will recommend to the court that the child be placed in foster care with the foster parents, who have already been screened. The foster parents often don't need to go to court at all.