DEPARTMENT OF WOMEN, YOUTH AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES HOLDS WORKSHOP ON ENFORCEMENT OF MAINTENANCE ACT AGAINST CHILD MAINTENANCE DEFAULTERS

DEPARTMENT OF WOMEN, YOUTH AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES HOLDS WORKSHOP ON ENFORCEMENT OF MAINTENANCE ACT AGAINST CHILD MAINTENANCE DEFAULTERS

Minister in the Presidency for Women Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Ms Maite Nkoana-Mashabane hosted a consultation on Enforcement of Maintenance Act Against Child Maintenance Defaulters, on Friday, 09 December, in Polokwane.

According to the Child Maintenance Act, the duty to support a child rests on both parents and must be shared between them according to their means, to provide for clothing, housing, medical care, education and recreation among other needs.
Therefore, the consultation is necessitated by the need to lessen the financial burden frequently borne by women who serve as the primary caretakers for children, and victims of unpaid child support.

The consultation is not the first of its kind for the department, with a previous one being held in Gauteng last year.
Ms Nandi Ndalane, Limpopo MEC for Social Development stressed the obligation of all to take care of the country’s children. MEC Ndalane indicated that while there was an obligation on the Province to care for all children, this places a burden on the state, where there should be an equal obligation on fathers.

Discussions amongst the room of 500 guests included challenges experienced by women in enforcing child maintenance orders, blacklisting of defaulters at the credit bureaus and implementation of garnishee orders and arrest of defaulters.

“To take care of children is a privilege and a responsibility. To think that men can walk away from their children with no feeling at all is worrying for us as a country, on how we treat our children. Is this the calibre of men we have as a society?” asked Minister Nkoana-Mashabane.

The event, which is a part of a series of activities to advocate against all forms of violence against women, including economic violence, takes place in the context of 16 Days of No Violence Against Women Campaign which was launched on 25 November ‘2022, under the theme “Socio-Economic Rights and Empowerment to build Women’s Resilience Against Gender-Based Violence and Femicide: Connect, Collaborate, Contract.”

The closing of 16 Days of Activism Campaign will take place in Ditsobotla, North West Province on Saturday, 10 December 2022. The event will take the form of a Men’s Dialogue on GBVF and the role men have to play in ending the scourge.