| (1) | Subject to section 14, a contributor who is the parent of a child is entitled to the parental benefits contemplated in this Part if the application is made in accordance with the prescribed requirements and the provisions of this Part and if the contributor— |
| (a) | has been registered as the father of the child in terms of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1992 (Act No. 51 of 1992); |
| (ii) | prospective adoptive parent of a child below the age of two, in terms of a court order that placed the child in the care of the prospective adoptive parent, pending the finalisation of the adoption order in respect of that child; or |
| (c) | is the parent of a child who has been born as a result of a surrogate motherhood agreement referred to in the Children’s Act, 2005 (Act No. 38 of 2005): |
Provided that the contributor did not claim the adoption benefits referred to in section 27 or the commissioning parental benefits referred to in section 29A in respect of the child.
| (a) | contemplated in subsection (1)(a) and (c) commences on the date of childbirth; and |
| (b) | contemplated in subsection (1)(b) commences on— |
| (i) | the date that the competent court grants the adoption order; or |
| (ii) | the date that a child is placed in the care of a prospective adoptive parent by a competent court, pending the finalisation of an adoption order in respect of that child, |
whichever date occurs first.
| (3) | When taking into account any parental leave paid to the contributor in terms of any other law or any collective agreement or contract of employment, the parental benefit may not be more than the remuneration the contributor would have received if the contributor had not been on parental leave. |
| (4) | For purposes of this section the maximum period of parental leave is ten consecutive days. |
| (5) | A contributor is not entitled to benefits unless he or she was in employment, whether as a contributor or not, for at least 13 weeks before the date of application for parental benefits. |
[Section 26A inserted by section 11 of Notice No. 1305, GG 42062, dated 27 November 2018 (Labour Laws Amendment Act, 2018)]
