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Legalbrief   |   your legal news hub Sunday 05 July 2026

Social workers contradict SCA adoption evidence

The two child welfare bosses who told the Supreme Court of Appeal that abandoned Baby Ruth should not be adopted by an American family because there were plenty of local homes for her seem to have contradicted that evidence in radio interviews.

Johannesburg Child Welfare Society social worker Pamela Wilson and Department of Social Development director Maria Mabetoa appear to have given different versions of their SCA evidence in interviews with Talk Radio 702 and Metro FM, notes a report in The Mercury. Now American couple Althea and Django de Gree want to use transcripts of the pair\'s interviews, in which Wilson admits that \'there are more children than adoptive parents to adopt them,\' in their legal battle for guardianship of the two-year-old. The couple are being represented by Jeremy Gauntlett SC. Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)