Gauteng high court suspends mother’s parental rights as father seeks to raise daughter with wife

Mother’s parental rights suspended as Gauteng father keeps care of daughter.

A Gauteng father has asked the court to grant him parental rights over his young daughter who has been in his care for as long as she can remember, while he and his wife plan to adopt her.

The court ultimately found that it was in the child's best interests to remain in the father's care after considering a report prepared by curatrices appointed to investigate the child's circumstances.

The curatrices' report, delivered on August 28, 2026, substantially confirmed the father's account of the care he and his family had been providing to the child.

Judge Stuart Wilson said the father had demonstrated that he was a fit parent and ruled that he should be awarded the parental rights he had sought.

The child's biological mother had recently been released from prison and told the curatrices that she was willing to relinquish her parental rights.

The report found that her decision had not been made spontaneously. She had given it sustained consideration and had realistically assessed her ability to provide the child with the care and stability she needed.

However, the curatrices were reluctant to recommend permanently terminating the mother's parental rights.

They considered that, once her circumstances had stabilised, she might potentially reconsider her decision. There was no indication that she intended to do so, and she appeared to be planning a future without the child.

The court found that the father and his family had been caring for the girl for as long as she could remember.

The child was described as happy and settled in their care, while there was no suggestion that the father was unfit to care for her.

The judge said the father had demonstrated his fitness to both the curatrices and the court.

Against this background, the judge concluded that sending the matter for another investigation would not assist the parties and, more importantly, would not be in the child's best interests.

The curatrices had proposed several possible ways of determining the child's future.