Call to act on deadbeat dads

Women’s group says statistics show local area has high rate of defaulting

Only 1,795 men in the Eastern Cape are not supporting their children – with 1,178 apparently from Mdantsane.

However, these are only the cases that are currently before the 79 courts in the province, meaning the figure is likely to be higher.

The result is that many children rely on government’s social grant of R380 a month.

The statistics of deadbeat fathers are according to records of the department of justice and correctional services, which signed into law the Maintenance Amendment Bill in 2018, allowing credit houses to blacklist child maintenance defaulters.

Masimanyane Women’s Rights International, which does not share their statistics with the government, said their figure for deadbeat fathers in the province was one less than that of the department’s – at 1,794.

Masimanyane said Mdantsane had the highest number of deadbeat fathers at 1,178.

However, the justice department could not verify the Mdantsane tally at the time of writing.

Asked whether there had been any child maintenance defaulters who were blacklisted, justice and correctional services spokesperson Solomon Mahlangu could not commit to a clear-cut response, except to say this was the responsibility of the credit houses.

In the bill passed early in 2018, government said it would forward defaulters’ names to the credit bureau.

The new legislation also states that if the defaulting parent cannot be traced, the courts have the powers to grant an order directing cellphone service providers to give the court contact information of the defaulter.

Asked about some of the challenges that the department faced, Mahlangu highlighted a lack of maintenance investigators.

“In some cases, the defaulters change addresses and place of employment, making it difficult to be found,” Mahlangu said.

Also, many people were employed in the informal sector and were not registered with the labour department, he said.

Others, he said, did not have bank accounts and, as such, it became difficult to establish their whereabouts, as well as sources of income.

Mahlangu said this made it easy for maintenance defaulters to escape their responsibilities.

Mooiplaas single parent Noxolo Xolo sat despondently in the waiting room of the maintenance courtroom at the East London magistrate’s court.

She has been trying to get the father of her 18-year-old child to pay maintenance since 2013.

“I have tried to get the court to force him to pay, but officials can’t serve him with summons. They haven’t explained to me why they have not done so.

“For all these years [18], he hasn’t paid. And I’m struggling with my child’s school transport money because I’m unemployed,” she told the Dispatch.

Masimanyane Women’s Rights community project manager Buyiswa Mhambi said men should take responsibility for their children. “These statistics paint a grim picture. “Nobody feels good when children aren’t being maintained. This mostly affects women and is frustrating to the kids, especially those who are coming of age.”

Mhambi said she had not heard of any child maintenance defaulter who ended up blacklisted.