‘I couldn’t pay school fees’

A BLUFF mother of four said she had had to watch her four children suffer while growing up, as their fathers could either not pay child maintenance or not the amount she needed.

Two of her children, she said, even had to drop out of high school as she could no longer afford to pay their fees.

“It was not easy knowing your children could not go on school excursions like the rest of their friends or eat the lunch others were having.

“As a mother, you want to give your children the best but I could not do that solely with my wage at the time,” said the mother, whose children are now all grown up and working. They are aged 29, 25, 20 and 18.

She said she was not married to her eldest son’s father.

“He paid child maintenance of about R500 back then but it was not adequate to take care of our son.”

The woman said that when her marriage with the father of the other three children ended, he paid maintenance at first but decided to resign from work.

This, she said, had turned their lives upside down: “Two of my children who were in high school had to leave because I could no longer afford their fees. The matter was handed over to the school’s lawyer, who then tried to locate my ex husband, but could not.

“I was eventually told I was liable for my son and daughter’s fees because I had enrolled them. I told the school I had a court order stating my ex-husband had to pay child maintenance but neither they nor their lawyer were interested. My children struggled to find work and when they eventually secured jobs, they received low wages.”

The woman said she was uncertain whether errant fathers would be encouraged to mend their ways by the threat of being blacklisted.