Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable children in SA
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One-Stop
Child Justice
Centres
The Child Justice Act
makes provision for
the establishment of
these centres.
The intention is that
these centres will bring
all services required by
a child in conflict with
the law under one
roof.
They have not yet
been established
and will have to be
incrementally realised
in accordance with
funding constraints and
available resources. xv
Targeted beneficiaries
Children in conflict
with the law
Centres are to be
managed by a
committee of senior
officials from the
DoJCD, DoSD, DCS,
SAPS, Legal Aid South
Africa and any other
relevant organ of state
and must be resourced
and serviced by those
departments. xvi
Notes:
(i) Section 45, Children’s Act. The orders that the Children’s Court may make in terms of the Children’s Act are more expansive
than the orders it was able to make in terms of the Child Care Act. The orders it was authorised to make in terms of the Child
Care Act were limited to placement orders in alternative care, orders for the removal and temporary detention of a child,
a contribution order, and an adoption order. This jurisdiction is increased by the Children’s Act to include: the holding of
inquiries and issuing of the range of orders listed above for children in need of care and protection, plus a range of orders
for children who are not necessarily in need of care and protection, relating to parental rights and responsibilities, parenting
plans, care and contact, paternity of a child, support of a child, and consent to medical treatment or operations.
(ii) Section 46, Children’s Act
(iii) Section 42, Children’s Act
(iv) In the past, the magistrate presiding over a matter in terms of the current Child Care Act was called a ‘commissioner of
child welfare’. Since the Children’s Act became operational, they are called ‘presiding officers’.
(v) SAPS website:http//www.saps.gov.za/crime_prevention/women/domestic_violence.htm
(vi) RAPCAN (2009) points out that children can experience domestic violence as direct recipients of the abuse or they can
experience the violence vicariously.
(vii) Section 170A, Criminal Procedure Act
(viii) Section 158, Criminal Procedure Act
(ix) Section 153, Criminal Procedure Act
(x) Section 40(1)(f), Child Justice Act
(xi) National Policy Framework for Child Justice, 2010: 4
(xii) Section 53, Child Justice Act
(xiii) National Policy Framework, 2010: 11
(xiv) Section 71(1), Child Justice Act
(xv) National Policy Framework, 2010: 13
(xvi) National Policy Framework, 2010: 13
Some key policy and service delivery gaps
Children and the juvenile justice system
An integrated system for collecting and managing data on children’s contact with the
juvenile justice system is lacking in South Africa (Presidency 2009: 117). Remedying this
deficiency is prioritised by the National Policy Framework for the Child Justice Act, which
includes guidelines for the establishment of an integrated information management system
to ‘enable effective monitoring, analysis of trends and interventions, to map the flow
of children through the child justice system and to provide quantitative and qualitative
data’ (DoJCD 2010: 7). The data that are available, albeit insufficient, do indicate that
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