South Africa can boast that it was the second country on the African continent (after Namibia) to ban corporal punishment when it passed the South African Schools Act in 1996. Almost two decades later, as the South Africa government prepares to present reports to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, a grave truth must be admitted. The General Household Survey for 2012 showed that 15.8% of all children reported having experienced corporal punishment in school during that year. That amounts to 2.2 million children being hit in South African schools within one year. Practice simply does not reflect the law’s promise.This report considers the prevalence of corporal punishment in schools, and depicts the forms that it takes through numerous documented examples. Official ambivalence and weak regulatory systems are identified as part of the country-wide problem. Improvements in some provinces are highlighted, and these are linked to deliberate programmatic responses, giving rise to hopes that corporal punishment, if effectively tackled, can ultimately be eradicated. In the conclusion to this report, Faranaaz Veriava prescribes a platform for action by government, the South African Human Rights Commission and other civil society role players. It is time for action.

Written by Faranaaz Veriava
Commissioned by the Centre for Child Law, 2014