South Africa leads the continent in offering more paternal leave to fathers. How to make sure both parents benefit

Wessel Van Den Berg

A South African high court has ushered in a new era of parental leave with a landmark ruling that new parents can share four months of parental leave, previously available only to mothers.

The case against the Minister of Labour was initiated by Werner and Ika van Wyk as first respondents, and advocacy group Sonke Gender Justice as third respondent. My organisation Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice was commissioned to write an expert affidavit on international good practices regarding parental leave, and we drew mainly on the criteria of good leave policies set out in the MenCare Parental Leave Platform for the affidavit.

The Van Wyk couple laid the case after Werner van Wyk was not able to take sufficient leave to care for their baby. His wife Ika, who is the CEO of her own company, had to take leave and her business