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In this guide
By Onah Attorneys Inc • Updated July 2026 • Legal information, not a substitute for advice on your specific matter.
A divorce, a death or a family feud — and suddenly grandchildren vanish from grandparents’ lives. South African law gives grandparents real standing: any person with an interest in a child’s care and wellbeing may approach the court. Here is what grandparents can claim and how these applications actually go.
The legal doorway
Section 23 of the Children’s Act lets ANY interested person apply for contact or care; Section 24 allows guardianship applications. Grandparents don’t have automatic rights — they have automatic STANDING to ask, and courts grant contact where a genuine relationship serves the child’s best interests.
Contact applications
The classic case: an existing loving relationship severed by a parent’s new conflict. Courts weigh the prior bond (photos, school pickups, holidays — evidence of real involvement), the reason contact was cut, and the child’s views. Modest, structured contact (a weekend a month, holiday time, calls) is a common outcome — courts rarely restore nothing where a real bond existed.
Care and guardianship — when grandparents step up
Where parents have died, abandoned the child or cannot care (addiction, incarceration, illness), grandparents routinely obtain care and even guardianship — formalising what is already reality in thousands of households. Formalisation matters practically: school enrolment, medical consent, SASSA grants (the child support grant follows the primary caregiver), passports and inheritance.
The process
Children’s Court for care/contact (accessible, no formal papers needed to start); High Court for guardianship. Mediation first where relationships are salvageable — a family meeting brokered by the Family Advocate solves many of these without a case number. Where urgency exists (child at risk), interim placements can be ordered fast.
The tactical warning
Grandparent applications inflame family conflict — courts know it and reward the grandparent who tried peace first: letters, mediation offers, keeping neutral in the parents’ war. Applications reading as an extension of the divorce fight fail; applications centred purely on the child’s need for the relationship succeed.
Frequently asked questions
Can parents simply cut grandparents off?
They can in practice — but grandparents can apply for contact, and courts restore relationships that genuinely benefit the child. The prior bond is the key evidence.
Can grandparents get the child support grant?
The caregiver of the child (including grandparents) claims the SASSA grant — formalised care makes this and every other practicality smoother.
Do grandparents pay maintenance?
Potentially yes — where parents cannot support the child, the duty can pass to grandparents with means. It works the other way too: caring grandparents can claim maintenance FOR the child from the parents.
What if one parent has died?
The surviving parent controls care, but courts protect the deceased parent’s family bonds — contact applications by paternal/maternal grandparents after a death succeed regularly.
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