Cape Town — After months of agonising debate, the controversial section banning all corporal punishment of children by their parents has been whipped out of the Children's Amendment Bill.

At a meeting of Parliament's social development committee yesterday, all political parties agreed to drop what has been dubbed the spanking clause.

But it will probably be back again in a more appropriate form in an amendment bill next year.

Section 139 was the last outstanding issue of discord in the bill, which is intended to strengthen mechanisms of state support for vulnerable children.

The committee adopted the bill, which will be debated in the National Assembly tomorrow .

Opponents said the section marked a further intrusion by the state into private life, and would see parents being marched off to court for disciplining children as the section would have removed the common law defence of reasonable chastisement.

Final adoption of the bill, which has been approved by the National Council of Provinces, was delayed last week when the caucus of the African National Congress (ANC) decided outlawing corporal punishment was too far from public opinion. This decision was in conflict with the view of the majority of ANC committee members, who want all forms of corporal punishment of children by parents banned.

Democratic Alliance social development spokeswoman Janet Semple welcomed the dropping of the section as the right thing to do as it made way for the adoption of the other valuable sections of the bill.

The DA believed there were sufficient remedies in existing law to act against abusive parents, and section 139 was going too far.

African Christian Democratic Party president Kenneth Meshoe welcomed the committee's adoption of its proposal to separate the controversial clause from the rest of the bill. He said "targeting and sensationalising parental spanking will not address abuse which is an entirely different matter and must be dealt with as such".

"This decision is in line with the beliefs of most South Africans, including members of this Parliament. We are grateful that members of the committee did not succumb to pressure from those leading the international campaign to stop spanking of children ," Meshoe said.

Freedom Front Plus youth affairs spokesman Willie Spies also welcomed the development. He said the government was looking for trouble if it planned to criminalise "millions of right-thinking parents while the state fails its obligation to safeguard the community from criminals".