Maintenance defaulters to be blacklisted

AN AMENDMENT to the Maintenance Act to blacklist maintenance defaulters with credit bureaus is on the cards.

In a written reply to questions, Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola said until now, the department had not implemented referrals to the credit bureaus of default orders as per the requirements of the Maintenance Amendment Act.

“There is a gap in the current legislation which prevents the implementation of section 11 of Act No 9 of 2015 as it does not create a correlative responsibility for the credit bureaus to receive the default orders from the maintenance clerks and maintenance officers.

“Although the department developed an internal circular to guide the officials on how to deal with the forwarding of the default orders, this circular has not been implemented pending the legislative amendment of the provision of the Act, which will include the correlative responsibility for the credit bureaus to receive and use this information against the defaulters’ credit rating,” he said.

Lamola also said the department was currently monitoring defaulters through a database pending the amendment of the Act.

“The department acknowledges the need for the speedy amendment of section 26 (2A) of the Act.

“In view of this gap, the department has requested the Legislative Development Branch to include the amendment of the Act to create this corresponding obligation to enable the Credit Bureaus to receive the orders and act accordingly.

“An amendment will be made through the Judicial Matters Amendment Bill to be introduced in Parliament later on during the year.”

Asked by DA MP Annerie Weber about the number of maintenance defaulters since the Act became operational, Lamola said the “blacklisting” provision of the Act could not be implemented as it stood and the department therefore could not provide statistics on the number of defaulters who have been blacklisted.

However, Lamola said there were 77 778 civil applications made in maintenance courts in the 2020-21 financial year.

Gauteng leads the pack with 14380 applications, followed by Limpopo with 11 553 and the Western Cape with 11182.

The Eastern Cape recorded 9320 civil applications, and KwaZulu-Natal 8 087.

Lamola also said there were 4 169 criminal applications for maintenance that were lodged in courts during the same period.

The Western Cape recorded the highest number of criminal applications at 1 121, followed by the Eastern Cape with 895, Free State 785, Limpopo 538, Northern Cape 416, Gauteng 262, North West 65, Mpumalanga 56 and KwaZulu-Natal 31.