The adoption journey begins: a personal account of adoption procedure in South Africa

I was volunteering at The Baby House in Umhlanga and feel in love with a beautiful little girl – Noma (Noodle).

We decided to move ahead with our decision to adopt in December 2010.  We contacted Durban Social Welfare who said that they could not assist us because we lived outside of their service zone and they referred us to Pinetown Christian Children Services.

We made an appointment with a social worker who didn’t really seem to know what the process was, but he said that he would contact Noma’s social worker to determine her availability for adoption.  After following up with him for several days he said that the child was available, but that they would not be able to assist us in our application due to capacity issues and referred us to several private social workers. I phoned 2 of them, left a message for one (who never got back to me) and got through to the other one who told me that they would NEVER let me adopt Noma because I was a volunteer and I was “baby shopping”.  She also said that all eligible babies were sent to Johannesburg and I would end up with another baby. I was devastated.

Still, we perservered and looked up our own social worker (http://www.saaswipp.co.za/index.php) and found Heather.  She also was unsure of the new processes, but endevoured to find out.  We had a couple of screening sessions with her and had to complete the following paperwork:

• application form (personal details, financial summary, family history)
• obtain 3 independant (not family member) written references. She emailed them directly, we just had to supply the contact details.
• get a criminal record check for both of us (also easy, just had to email Colm Kenny colm@phoenixpark.co.za, pay a fee of R140 each and he did it for us)
• each of us had to sign an affidavit that we had not been convicted of sexual offences (there is a specific format)
• we needed to complete Child Act forms and send them through to Pretoria.  These included

–          FORM 25: NOTIFICATION OF SEXUAL ABUSE, DELIBERATE NEGLECT OR ABUSE IN AMANNER CAUSING PHYSICAL INJURY OF CHILD FOR INCLUSION IN PART A OF NATIONAL CHILD PROTECTION REGISTER and,

–          FORM30: INQUIRY BY PERSON TO ESTABLISH IF HIS / HER NAME IS INCLUDED IN PART B OF NATIONAL CHILD PROTECTION REGISTER

Then there was also a home visit.  Heather tried to keep us as informed as possible, she sent us as much information as possible in order to explain the process.

A few of the crucial elements was that Noma HAD to have been advertised and then be on RACAP for a month. Her advertising was completed in December, but because of the festive season her name was not put into the register until the end of January!

It was also at that time that Heather was able to send our suitability report through to Durban Child Welfare (she’d managed to put it together in about 2 months), the Adoption Panel met and we were recommended to look after Noma.

In February I was able to meet with Noma’s social worker, Amy, who asked me a few questions (probing me I’m sure to make certain that we were serious).  And then we were able to take Noodle home – YAY. Only problem was that no-one could figure out how to vary her place of safety.so we were given a letter giving Noma temporary leave of absence from the Baby House. It was an informal arrangement because the baby was still on RACAP until 20 February.

The 20th came and went and no-one took our baby away. The next 2 months was a constant to-ing and fro-ing between Heather and Child Welfare to get their report completed. Their report needed to contain the following:

• background of how she was found and her health
• details of advertising
• their evaluation

We also had home visits from both social workers during that time.

Heather was able to collect the report from Amy on 26 April and deliver it to the Pinetown Magistrate Court. On 17th May we were then informed by Heather that the Department had told her that we could go ahead with the application to adopt.

We went to the Magistrates Court at the end of May and were told to come back with the following (Heather had not given us the forms or told us):

• application form
• 2 certified copies of both of our ID documents
• 2 certified copies of our marriage certificate
• 2 certified copies and 1 original birth certificate of the child

We handed the documents in on 23rd June. Pinetown Court will NOT accept documents on any day other than a Thursday, so if you miss a day due to circumstance you need to wait a week. Same applies if the Thursday is a public holiday – wait another week. We were able to make an appointment to see the Magistrate the next week (30th June) when we were there.

On the 30th of June we went in front of the Magistrate together with the Adoptions clerk and signed the application in front of him. The Magistrate made a comment that now that the application was open the social workers would start with the screening process. He must’ve been completely unaware that we had already gone through all of that BEFORE we could get there.

We were then given 2 copies of the application (one for us and one for Heather).

We sent Heather her copy. Once we had those documents Heather was able to hand her report in as the application had officially been opened.

The Presiding Officer granted the adoption on 19 July and the Adoption clerk phoned to let me know. We had an option of letting them post the adoption documents to the Registrar of Adoption in Pretoria or send is via registered post ourselves and we opted to do that (better to be safe than sorry).

The documents being sent to the Registrar were:

• the adoption application (the one that we signed in front of the magistrate)
• the sexual offences affidavits
• certified copies of both of our ID’s
• certified copy of our marriage certificate
• the recommendation from the department of social welfare (who knows where this came from)
• Heather’s report
• Child Welfare’s report
• An original birth certificate
• A certified copy of the birth certificate
• SAPS investigation report
• Newspaper cuttings of the advertisements
• Criminal record checks for both of us
• the Adoption Order signed by the Presiding Officer (and 2 copies)

And now we wait for the certificate/order of adoption to be sent to us from Pretoria.

Getting the right social worker (who is on your side) really helps. You need to find someone who regularly attends briefing sessions about the Child Act and the various procedures that need to take place. Having someone who is pushy also helps. I found that the more you know about the process the better.   Hope this helps someone.   Don’t give up!

Cindy Houston