What can i as a father do to get custody of my child?
Good Day, I have a male friend who has a month old baby. The mother has been in Cape Town throughout her pregnancy and in this time he’s sent her money for doctors appointments etc. She came to Joburg early January. He wants to do a paternity test as he thinks it’s not his child due to the fact that there is another man claiming that its his child but regardless of that he’s since still been visiting the child regularly and he’s been supporting the child. The mother has now threatened to take the child away and has disappeared. What can he do to gain custody if the child happens to be his as he has previously asked her to have the child live with him seeing that he’s more stable and she’s not working and living with some family member.
Category: Family Law, Custody and Guardianship
Region: South Africa, Gauteng
1 Answer
Hello. First he will have to accept that the child is his child and bring an application to the high court for custody. Which means he will have to locate the residence of mother and child to serve court papers. If the mother disputes paternity, then he will have to pay for a paternity test. Being unmarried it will be especially difficult to get custody of the child as the courts favor mothers as primary care givers. More difficult when the child is a baby. However he may be given a right of access ( to see and engage with the child ). He will have to then pay maintenance or child support to the mother.