CHILDREN’S PROTECTION AND ADOPTION ACT (as amended at 01 December 2002) 15 Court or magistrate may authorize removal of child or young person to place of safety (1) If it appears to any court in the course of any proceedings before that court or to a magistrate, in the course of a preparatory examination that an offence specified in the First Schedule has been or is being committed upon or in connection with any child or young person, or if the parent or guardian of a child or young person is by any such court or magistrate convicted of or committed for trial for any such offence, that court or magistrate, as the case may be, may, if it or he considers it expedient, issue a warrant authorizing a police officer to search for and to take the child or young person to a place of safety. (2) If it appears to any magistrate, on information given on oath by any person, that there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that an offence specified in the First Schedule is being or has been committed upon or in connection with a child or young person who is within the area of his jurisdiction or that a child or young person is in need of care and that it is expedient that such child or young person shall be taken into a place of safety, the magistrate may issue a warrant authorizing any police officer to search for and to take the child or young person to a place of safety. (3) Any police officer acting under a warrant issued in terms of subsection (1) or (2) may enter, by force if necessary, any house or other premises wherein the child or young person who is the subject of the warrant is suspected to be and may remove such child or young person from the place where he finds him to a place of safety. (4) Any warrant issued in terms of subsection (1) or (2) may authorize any person named therein to accompany the police officer who is to execute the warrant. (5) It shall not be necessary in any warrant issued in terms of subsection (1) or (2) to state the name of the child or young person whose removal is thereby ordered. 16 Authority to detain child or young person in place of safety Any child or young person who— (a) has been taken to a place of safety in terms of this Act or who has sought refuge in a place of safety, may be detained therein: or (b) has been ordered by a court, which has convicted him of an offence, to be dealt with in terms of this Act, may be detained in a place of safety; until he has been brought before and dealt with by a children's court. 17 Duty to bring child or young person before children's court 31 Any police officer or probation officer who has removed a child or young person to, and any person who is detaining a child or young person in, a place of safety shall bring such child or young person before a children's court as soon as possible and in any event within seven days of such removal or the commencement of such detention, as the case may be. 18 Alleged child in need of care may be brought before children's court Any child or young person alleged to be a child in need of care may be brought before the children's court for the area in which such child or young person resides or happens to be by any police officer or probation officer or by the parent or guardian of such child or young person. 19 Children's court to hold inquiry in respect of child or young person brought before it (1) A children's court before which a child or young person has been brought— (a) in terms of this Act, shall inquire and determine whether he is a child in need of care and, if such be the case, shall inquire into and determine the appropriate order to be made in terms of this Act; or (b) in terms of an order of a court, which has convicted him of an offence, in order to be dealt with in terms of this Act, shall inquire into and determine the appropriate order to be made in terms of this Act; or may refer the inquiry and determination to the children's court of the area in which the child or young person or his parent or guardian resides. 16