Bongani: 'Why do people still spank their kids?'
Bongani put this question out to KZN listeners after hearing about parents who found themselves in hot water for spanking their kids.
According to IOL, the Gauteng High Court recently ruled that the defence of reasonable chastisement was not in line with the constitution and is no longer applied in law. This basically means that it is unconstitutional for parents to hit their own kids.
Read: Mags on the worst beating she received as a child
Hitting children has always been defined as assault under our country's criminal law system. However, parents have always had the right to spank, smack or hit their kids, and if ever the children reported the incident, the parents had a special defence to plead and stood to be acquitted of assault if they could prove that the chastisement was moderate and reasonable.
Read: Damon: I am disturbed by how easy it is to physically hurt a child
Now that this law has been done away with, parents can no longer have the right to hit, spank or smack their own children.
Also read: Mom finds ingenious way for her children to make peace
Take a listen to how KZN reacted to this new law in the podcast below.
Bongani, Rory and Gareth also shared their own opinions about the new law.