It’s been more than five years since Hlengiwe* had a fallout with her husband, but she’s still battling to get him to support his two children.
Hlengiwe, 37, first applied for child maintenance for her two children, an 18-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy, in 2013. But her ex-husband only paid for the first few months and then stopped paying altogether.
“He only paid for the first three or four times and then he stopped. When I took the matter to court, he told the court that he has many children. I want him to take care of his children.
“Then I was told that his work contract had expired, but I didn’t believe that story because he’s been working there for over 13 years.
“Then I asked his bosses if his pension fund would be divided among his children and they told me it has nothing to do with me. I want this person to support his children.
“They are older now and they have needs that I can’t afford.
“For example, the girl is in matric and needs to go to college next year. She also needs sanitary towels and make-up now,” says the disgruntled mother.
On Thursday, Hlengiwe appeared for the third time in the Johannesburg Family Court in the hope that the law might make her ex-husband finally face the music.
But her hopes were dashed when he failed to appear at the Maintenance Court.
Hlengiwe is not the only one. Hundreds of mostly women spend hours and hours daily, queuing at the Maintenance Court, hoping to get justice for their children.
Zama*, 35, says her child’s father disappeared after her two-year-old daughter was born in 2016 and he is not paying any child support.
“Now he is fathering children with his new girlfriend, but he can’t support his own child.
“I’ve been coming here (the Family Court) since last November but he does not attend. The court had also been given different reasons as to why this case has been delayed.
“They told me that he changed his mobile number and that he also changed his residential address,” says Zama.
Probably the only man among the women is Donevan*, who believes the Family Court is biased towards women, adding that he knows he is fighting a losing battling as a man because the court always rules in favour of the women.
“Right now I want my wife to help me support our two children, but I know I am already on the back foot.
“She did not pay maintenance for two years after our divorce. I took the matter to the court, but they took a year to respond to my enquiry,” said the 44-year-old.
In 2015, the Department of Justice issued a directive that maintenance defaulters would be listed and blacklisted. The law became effective on January 5 this year.
Regarding whether the law had been effective so far in ensuring that parents paid maintenance for their children, Department of Justice and Constitutional Development spokesperson Steve Mahlangu said both parents (man and woman) should be responsible for the maintenance of their child.
However, he said in cases where those who are supposed to pay maintenance are unemployed, or do not have the necessary means, the law provided that a maintenance complainant may lodge a maintenance claim against the grandparents of the child (the parents of the defaulting party), provided that the grandparents have the necessary means.
“The department developed a monitoring tool as well as to refer the defaulters to the relevant credit bureaus for blacklisting purposes.
“It should also be that the said law (listing and blacklisting) is only invoked on application by the complainants of the enforcement of maintenance orders, after which such applications are referred to the maintenance officers for determination and thereafter to the courts for issuing of the enforcement order,” said Mahlangu.
Gender activist Mbuyiselo Botha believes that the defaulters are men who were not supported by their own fathers.
“And they take that anger to other women. This has bad consequences because we see a high number of street kids. It’s unfair to the child and the country.
“And I don’t think our justice system is working enough on these cases because we still have untraceable fathers.
“We expected a blacklisting, but the system still doesn’t hit these fathers hard,” he said.