UNWED MOTHER IS JAILED TO UPHOLD DAD’S RIGHTS

(The Citizen, July 8, 2008-Ilse de Lange, hicourt@mweb.co.za)

An unwed mother will have to spend a weekend in jail for repeatedly refusing to allow her daughters father to exercise his visiting rights.

The father, a Pretoria prison warder, went back to court to have his nine-year old illegitimate daughter’s mother jailed after she ignored a Pretoria High Court order and a suspended jail sentence.

Acting judge Peter Mabuse yesterday ordered that the mother be jailed for a weekend while the child spends time with her dad. She must also abide by a 2006 court order granting the father regular access to his daughter.

He also granted a punitive costs order against the mother, an administrative official.

The father said in court papers his former mistress flatly refused to grant him access to his daughter even after he went to her house with the police. It appeared from a family advocate’s report that the woman was worried the father’s white wife would abuse the child.