A judge chided a Social Worker and a dad asking to have custody of his children in the UK for bringing up South Africa's crime rate without backing up their argument.

• A court had to make a tough decision on whether two children should move to the UK to be with their dad. 
• However, a reference to crime as one of the reasons they should go, annoyed the judge. 
• For now, the children will stay with their mother in South Africa.

The Western Cape High Court issued a stinging rebuke to a Forensic Social Worker who cited South Africa's crime rate as one of the reasons why two children should move to the UK to be in the custody of their father, without backing it up with statistics.

The case involved two children living with their mother in Cape Town, after their father emigrated to Manchester, England. 

He wants the children to join him, saying they will be better off there, and with the help of the social worker, set out a list of reasons why. 

His reasons were many, including that schools and health care are free in the United Kingdom.

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And one reason, presented by the social worker, was that the UK is a "safer option" for the children. 

But Judge Judith Cloete questioned this. "It is also of some concern that [the social worker] voiced the opinion the UK presents 'a safer option to raise a child' based on what she states to be the high crime rates, risk of attack or abduction and the 'political situation' in this country 'such as rolling blackouts, corruption… unsafe communities, high unemployment… and ailing public services'," said Cloete in her judgment on 28 August.

"Equally, and as is evident from a simple Google search in August 2023, crime in Manchester stood at 63.41% with a steadily increasing rate over the previous three years, and with drug addiction and related issues standing at 71.48%," Cloete continued. 

Cloete referenced the website www.numbeo.com – the website explains that its data is based on perceptions of visitors of the website in the past three years.

It explains: "If the value is 0, it means it is perceived as very low, and if the value is 100, it means it is perceived as very high."

In the section "Levels of Crime", the perception is a high 63.41%. The section "Problem people using or dealing drugs" was the 71.48% Cloete referred to.

"It is not that these statistics are necessarily factually accurate, but when a forensic social worker makes claims of this nature, it is of little, if any assistance, to a court in having to determine whether relocation is in the children’s best interests.

"What is, however, relevant is the father’s singular failure to place this type of factual information before the court."

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The couple divorced in 2018, and the children's father moved to the UK for a well-paying job and has moved on from his ex and now has a fiancée. The next step was for him to send for the children. 

He said his savings on maintenance would cover air tickets to send the children to South Africa to visit their mother, and he could also bring her over once a year to visit them. 

Cloete went through the painful decisions that accompany these applications, which included the interviews with the children, who said they loved the snow and doing cool things with their dad. 

She said that although the children seemed to have a "fantasy" idea of the UK and being with their dad (the "fun parent"), there were questions over his finances after he was retrenched, and noted that the children were also very attached to their mother. 

Cloete then dismissed the application to let them move to the UK. 

She found that the risk to the children's psychological and emotional wellbeing is greater if the children relocated at this stage, than if they remained in South Africa.

Cloete said: 

"The children may, of course, be disappointed by this decision, particularly given their fantasised view of life in the UK, but I am persuaded that, as difficult as this is, it is the correct one to make."