Questionable Issue Illegitimacy in South Africa

Over 40 per cent of all children in South Africa are born to unmarried people. In some communities this figure reaches 70 per cent. Yet in South Africa illegitimacy is still a contentious issue, and both social and policy recognition of change lags far behind reality.Written by a team of academics and practitioners in the fields of law, anthropology, religious studies, economics, clinical psychology, psychiatry, and paediatrics, Questionable Issue provides challenging perspectives on a largely unrecognized aspect of social change. The authors recommend changesin the legal provisions governing non-marital children, and suggest policy changes directed at the provision of welfare facilities for unmarried parents and minor children.