Almost every South African website will tell you that a father is entitled to ten consecutive days of parental leave.
That stopped being true on 3 October 2025.
The Constitutional Court struck the old rules down in Van Wyk and Others v Minister of Employment and Labour, and read in a new regime that took effect the same day. Fathers can now take months, not days. But there is a catch, and it is a large one, so read to the end before you hand in your notice.
What a father is entitled to now
The ten day entitlement is gone as a standalone right. In its place:
If you are the only employed parent, or a single parent, you can take four consecutive months of parental leave.
If your partner is also employed, the two of you share a pool of four months and ten days. You decide the split. You can take it at the same time, one after the other, or a bit of both. If you cannot agree between yourselves, it gets divided as equally as possible.
So a father whose wife is running her own business, or is not working, can now take the full four months. A father in a dual income household can take whatever share he and his partner agree on, which could be half, or more, or all of it save for the birth mother’s recovery period.
There is one carve out. The birth mother retains preference for the time needed to prepare for and recover from birth, and she may not return to work within six weeks of giving birth unless a doctor certifies her fit. Those six weeks come out of the shared pool.
Work out your share, and what you will be paid, with our parental leave calculator.
Now the catch
The Constitutional Court fixed the leave. It did not fix the money.
The Court declared the corresponding sections of the Unemployment Insurance Act unconstitutional too, but it expressly declined to read in an interim UIF regime, citing the financial and policy consequences. It left that to Parliament.
The result is that UIF is still paying out under the old categories. And under the old categories, a non birth parent can claim for ten days. That is it.
So the position for a South African father today is this:
- The BCEA says you may take up to four months off.
- Your employer does not have to pay you for it, because statutory parental leave is unpaid.
- UIF will pay you for ten days.
Ten days at the maximum UIF rate is roughly R3 840. That is the entire state contribution toward four months of caring for your newborn.
On a R30 000 salary, a father taking seventeen weeks off is looking at a shortfall of over R113 000. Run your own number through the calculator. It is not a comfortable figure, and it is far better to see it now than in month three.
What you can actually do about it
Check your employer’s policy, and then challenge it. This is the real opportunity, and most fathers do not realise they have it.
Many employers pay birth mothers four months of full salary and give fathers nothing beyond the statutory minimum. That policy was designed for a legal regime that no longer exists. The Constitutional Court has held that birth mothers are no longer a distinct category of parent for leave purposes.
A policy that pays only birth mothers now carries a genuine risk of an unfair discrimination claim under the Employment Equity Act. If your employer has a generous paid maternity benefit and refuses you the equivalent, that refusal is legally exposed in a way it simply was not two years ago.
Raise it in writing. Ask, politely and specifically, whether the policy has been reviewed since the Van Wyk judgment of 3 October 2025, and on what basis a paid benefit is available to one parent and not another. A great many South African employers have not touched their policies and know they are behind. Some are levelling up voluntarily.
Be aware of the other possible outcome, though. Some employers will respond by removing the paid benefit for everyone rather than extending it. That is a lawful response if a fair process is followed. It is worth thinking about what you actually want before you push.
Negotiate. Even where there is no policy, four months of unpaid leave is a conversation. Partial pay, a phased return, or using accrued annual leave to bridge part of the gap are all things employers agree to.
Plan the split. If your partner is employed and is on a lower salary, or her employer’s paid benefit is worse than yours, the arithmetic of who takes what changes. The pool is yours to divide. Use it.
Claiming your ten days from UIF
You can still claim, and you should.
The benefit is 66 percent of your earnings, but only on earnings up to the ceiling of R17 712 a month. Earn more than that and your benefit is worked out on R17 712 regardless. The maximum daily benefit is about R384.
Make sure your employer records the correct benefit category on your UI-19 form. With the leave categories now collapsed and UIF still running the old codes, this is exactly the kind of administrative mismatch that gets claims bounced. See how to claim UIF, the UI-19 form, and UIF claim rejected if it goes wrong.
Notice
Give your employer written notice of your intended leave dates and your expected return date, at least four weeks before the leave starts, unless that is not reasonably practicable.
Expect to be asked for proof of your parental relationship, and, if your partner is also employed, for confirmation of how the two of you are splitting the pool. Your employer may verify that with her employer. Within reason, that is legitimate.
Your employer cannot limit how many times you take statutory parental leave across your career.
Is this going to change again?
Yes, probably. The Labour Laws Amendment Bill went out for public comment in February 2026 and proposes a unified, gender neutral parental benefit in the UIF, which would close the gap described above.
It is not law yet. Parliament has until roughly October 2028 to legislate, and until it does, the interim regime holds and fathers keep the ten day UIF limit.
Watch this space, because when the UIF side is fixed, four months of paternity leave becomes a genuinely affordable proposition rather than a theoretical right.
Frequently asked questions
How many days paternity leave in South Africa? The ten day entitlement no longer exists. Since 3 October 2025 a father can take up to four consecutive months if he is the only employed parent, or a negotiated share of a four month and ten day pool if both parents work.
Is paternity leave paid in South Africa? Not by your employer, unless your contract or company policy says so. Statutory parental leave is unpaid. UIF will pay a non birth parent for ten days only, at 66 percent of capped earnings.
Can a father take four months paternity leave? Yes, if he is the only employed parent. If both parents are employed, he can take a share of the four months and ten days, agreed with his partner.
Can my employer refuse me parental leave? No, not the statutory entitlement, provided you give proper written notice. They can ask you to prove your entitlement.
Can I claim UIF for four months of paternity leave? No. UIF still pays a non birth parent for ten days. The Constitutional Court fixed the leave rules but left the UIF Act to Parliament.
Is my employer’s maternity only pay policy legal? It is now at risk. Since birth mothers are no longer a distinct category of parent, paying only them may amount to unfair discrimination under the Employment Equity Act.
Sources
- Constitutional Court of South Africa, Van Wyk and Others v Minister of Employment and Labour
- SAFLII, Van Wyk and Others v Minister of Employment and Labour (CCT 308/23) [2025] ZACC 20
This is general information, not legal advice. If you are planning an extended period of unpaid leave, get advice before you commit.
