Advocacy group warns ConCourt ruling on shared parental leave misses the mark

While the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling on parental leave has been praised as a step toward equality, some critics say it may do more harm than good in practice.

The court struck down the existing law (which granted four months to birth mothers and only 10 days to fathers or non-birthing parents) as unconstitutional, calling it discriminatory.

It proposed a new shared model allowing both parents to divide four months and 10 days of leave between them.

However, Wessel van den Berg, senior advocacy officer at Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice, argues the ruling "misses the boat" by forcing families to split the limited leave instead of extending it.

"Proposing a shared model for a country like South Africa is not the complete option."

He warns that this may unintentionally reduce the support new mothers receive during a critical time.

"It unfortunately now has to cut into maternity leave - taking leave away from mothers - which I think is sad."

In addition, Van den Berg says most South African families (especially those who are separated or low-income) may struggle to agree on how leave should be divided, making the model impractical.

"Most children live in homes where the parents are already separated, and just judging how contentious it is to negotiate child maintenance, imagine now negotiating who is going to take how much leave. I think there's a lot of work to be done by Parliament to nuance this leave to address that."

Unless the law is properly reworked to consider the country's social realities, Van den Berg fears the new framework may deepen inequality rather than solve it.

Wessel van den Berg was in conversation with CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit.

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