Bill set to rein in maintenance dodgers

Cape Town 241110 A banner hanging off the unfinished highway in the CBD of Cape Town to mark th “16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children”: End of the road for maintenance defaulters.Today, marks the official launch of the Western Cape Provincial Government’s 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign, which will run from 25 November to 10 December 2010. picture : neil baynes

Cape Town 241110 A banner hanging off the unfinished highway in the CBD of Cape Town to mark th “16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children”: End of the road for maintenance defaulters.Today, marks the official launch of the Western Cape Provincial Government’s 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign, which will run from 25 November to 10 December 2010. picture : neil baynes

Published Jul 2, 2015

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 Johannesburg - Some men go to great lengths to avoid paying towards the upkeep of their children, and in Gauteng they now owe millions of rand in unpaid maintenance.

Some resign from their jobs to avoid payments, while others change jobs and bank accounts. Others get retrenched from their jobs and then spend their money without informing the Department of Justice so that a new payment structure could be put into place to the children’s benefit.

In April, Gauteng recorded 169 people who had defaulted on their maintenance. In May, the number rose to 199.

The defaulters owed close to R5 million in April, according to Department of Justice spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga.

Records show that the amount for May was lower, close to R4m. Last month’s statistics are not available.

Mhaga said some of the parents changed their bank accounts in order to avoid paying maintenance. These were the ones the maintenance court had already ordered to pay, and the money was being deducted straight from their bank accounts.

In other instances, the parents changed jobs without informing the department, and agreements the department had with their previous employers for the deduction of maintenance money would be rendered useless.

This often results in the parent who has custody of the children having to go back to the court so that a new agreement can be enforced with the new employer. The maintenance will then remain unpaid until the parent is traced again and the employer is ordered to deduct the money .

While the parent was supposed to inform the court about any changes regarding their employment, the employer also had a duty to do so, if his employer was leaving his employ.

“Others leave their jobs because they do not want to pay, but we can also attach their pension fund,” Mhaga said.

Jane*, 41, is one of the mothers whose partners quit his job to avoid paying maintenance. Her former boyfriend and father of their 14-year-old son had just done that, she said.

“While we were in a meeting with the maintenance clerk, he said he did not know why he had to pay maintenance because I was getting a grant for the child. However, the clerk told him that it did not matter; it was his child and he was supposed to pay.”

She added:

“Whenever I called his office, I would always be told that he was on leave. I later found out that he had resigned. He disappeared for three years.

“When he returned he was unemployed for some time. He got another job and used to pay me cash. There were times when he failed to keep to his promise, and I went back to the court. They told me there that I should fill in new forms so that they could increase the amount he should pay. I don’t know what happened to the case as they never made a follow-up.”

For some people, however, the long queues at the maintenance court aren’t worth the trouble. They continue trying to fight this battle on their own.

Neo*, 38, broke up with her boyfriend when she was pregnant six years ago.

For four years she raised their daughter alone, but asked him for a financial contribution two years ago. He started paying R800 a month and recently increased it to R1 000.

Neo thinks the maintenance court would order her ex-partner to pay only R400 if she approached it, based on other people’s accounts of how the court works.

“He will tell the court how he is educating his sister’s children. Although he is paying R1 000, he is not prepared to pay more as he says I will spend the money on myself. The only reason he is even paying is because I threatened to take him to court. He is scared of going to prison,” she said.

With Parliament passing the Maintenance Amendment Bill last week, the screws are set to be tightened.

The bill not only makes it easier for those seeking maintenance to lay their claims, but cellphone providers will be roped in to help trace them and convince the courts that reasonable effort has been made to trace them, with credit bureau blacklisting consequences for the defaulters.

*Not their real names.

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