SPARE THE ROD OR GO TO JAIL.

Image Credit: cukkerberg

 A proposed legislation by the South African government raised a heated conversation today on the midday dialogue. The proposed legislation is ''any parent who spanks his/her child above 5 years old, will be sent to jail''. Sounds like a joke right? Well it's not! And though the legislation has not yet been passed, I think it's something we should discuss.


Who would have thought 50years ago that we'd be having legislations like this debated in Africa? Makes me want to really be alive in the next 20, 30years because, believe it or not, many laws we seem to stand against right now might become norms then...yeah, read this article again in 50years time and see if I'm right or wrong.

But let's look at it closely, what do you think about this legislation? Supporters of this legislation claim the law is set up to check parents and teachers who don't know how to draw the line between correction and molestation, but critics of the law say it is against all the African society stands for. 'anti-God' and 'anti-christianity' are some terms they've used.

Well, it was fun moderating the debate on air alongside Joy Eberebe and I really saw both sides of the debate trying to make reasonable points, but the bottomline is; if we are human beings--like we claim we are--then we don't really need a law to help us remember that we are meant to treat our young (kids) honourably and with a touch of love. Child abuse is not logical, and there's a very thick line between correction and Abuse! Even a blind man can see that line.