Cape Town - If you make a baby you must take care of it. This was the message sent out at the launch of a national petition that hopes to bring child maintenance defaulters to book.
The campaign by the DA follows the ANC’s move to exclude a clause from the Child Maintenance Bill which would allow for credit bureaus to blacklist parents who default on their child maintenance payments.
Outside Parliament on Wednesday, DA supporters listened to premier and outgoing DA leader Helen Zille explaining the importance of child maintenance and why she wanted people to support the petition.
“We are gathered to make our voices heard on an issue directly affecting the nine million children in South Africa today who grow up in single parent households.”
Zille said the campaign stressed to people that they should not “make a baby if you can’t be a good parent”.
“Children who grow up in single parent households are more likely to be born into poverty, especially if the mother is still a teenager. Due to circumstances these children are more vulnerable to substance abuse and being drawn into risky sexual behaviour.”
Zille added that defaulters should be named and shamed because many of them were able to pay off other accounts but not child maintenance.
“The ANC has now backtracked on their commitment, and decided to remove this clause entirely. They have based their opposition to blacklisting maintenance defaulters on the weakest of arguments. The ANC argued that blacklisting defaulters would prevent them from getting credit to pay maintenance.
“We will stage the mother of all fights in Parliament to ensure that Clause 11 is included in this Maintenance Amendment Bill.”
Mayor Patricia de Lille said they wanted to send a message to all who defaulted on child maintenance.
“It is the duty of both mother and father to bring up a child. Even if you leave the relationship you must still pay child maintenance. Section 28 of the constitution gives special rights to children and we must do more than just talk about children’s rights.”
The campaign will be run by the Democratic Alliance Women’s Network (Dawn) interim leader Denise Richards and on Wednesday scores of DA members took to the city to get signatures for the petition. The campaign will continue across the country.
Cape Argus