Pretoria - A legal tussle between parents on whether their three children should be allowed to travel to Israel to partake in religious ceremonies was heard in the high court in Johannesburg last week.
The mother of the children refused to allow her husband to take the children out of South Africa.
A judge commented that the parents, who were never married and now separated, “genuinely disliked each other,” but that this should not stand in the way of the children’s legal rights.
The Children’s Act provides for the development of their religious and cultural rights. The children are in their formative years of religious and cultural development and will benefit from their visit to Israel, a land of multiple religions and rich history, the court said.
The father turned to court after the mother refused to give her consent for them to travel towards the end of this month and for their passports, held at the office of an attorney, to be handed over to the father.
The father, an Israeli citizen who has been in South Africa since 2006, said he dearly wanted his children to travel to his country of birth. He said they planned to participate in religious celebrations with their elderly, ailing grandparents and other relatives who live in Israel.
But the mother fears that he will not return to South Africa with their children. She said she was afraid he would relocate to Israel with their three children without telling her.
Her advocate said there was litigation pending against the father for a claim in terms of a universal partnership as well as maintenance, thus the time was “ripe” for the father to relocate.
The parents separated in 2019 and the children are living with their father at present. His advocate said her client had no plans to relocate to Israel as he had businesses in this country. She referred the court to his auditor’s report on his business, his company’s ownership of immovable property of substantial value, and proof he had secured renovation projects for next year.
He only wanted to visit his family with his children to establish familial bonds, she said. The children have cousins of their age in Israel and his youngest child has not met his elderly and ailing grandparent, who are unable to travel.
But the mother said she had always been concerned that he would take them to Israel and never return. She referred the court to pictures of packed bags in the father’s house, correspondence with friends that indicated he did not want the children to know their mother and proof of deposits of money into offshore accounts, which she said demonstrated his intentions to leave permanently with the children.
He has no regard for the law, the mother said, as he used multiple ID numbers on important documents which would pose a problem if the authorities had to trace him, or if he were not allowed back into the country with the children.
The judge said the court had to balance the interests of the children against those of their parents, who appeared to dislike one another. “It may well be that the parties’ personality differences may endure for a long while;the children cannot wait around until they resolve themselves.”
The children’s constitutional rights to freedom of movement must prevail and they must be allowed to travel to Israel, he said,but ordered the father to set down R300 000 in case he did not return to South Africa and the mother had to institute legal proceedings.
Pretoria News