To smack or not to smack? Should the law prohibit South African parents from imposing corporal punishment on their children?

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Periodical article

Title:	To smack or not to smack? Should the law prohibit South African parents from imposing corporal punishment on their children?
Author:	Pete, Steve
Year:	1998
Periodical:	South African Journal on Human Rights
Volume:	14
Issue:	3
Pages:	430-460
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	children corporal punishment
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1080/02587203.1998.11834986
Abstract:	During 1997 corporal punishment was abolished officially from South African public life. It may no longer be imposed as a sentence by a court of law or used as a means of enforcing discipline in South African schools and prisons. All that remains is the common law right of South African parents to beat their children, provided that such beating does not exceed 'reasonable chastisement'. This so-called smacking question is bound to cause heated debate in the country. In this article the author attempts to anticipate some of the legal, political and theoretical issues which may be relevant to this debate. He first examines corporal punishment from a historical and theoretical perspective and then focuses on the realities of corporal punishment in South Africa today. He concludes with a plea for the abolition of smacking from South African family life. Notes, ref.