New spanking law in the works

A new law is being drafted to make it illegal for parents to spank their children at home, the Sunday Times reported.

   

"If a husband beats a wife it's a crime, but if a parents hits a child who is helpless, it's not illegal," social development minister Bathabile Dlamini told the newspaper.

   

She said parents had to take responsibility and raise their children with proper values, to ensure they "don't end up killing your own children."

   

Corporal punishment has been outlawed at school since 2006.

   

The Sunday Times reported that, under the draft law, parents would be charged with assault if, at home, they used a flat hand on child's bottom or enacted other forms of corporal punishment.

   

-Sapa