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To: Minister Ms Mmamoloko Kubayi & Department of justice and constitutional
We demand that Minister Ms Mmamoloko Kubayi to verify the credibility of child mantainance documents
Child Maintenance is the responsibility that should be shared by both parents, and it is important for the well-being of the child [1] . When fathers who do not stay with their children fail to maintain the children, the family court should work effectively to ensure that the children, mothers, or primary caregivers do not suffer from the negligence. Maintenance courts are failing mothers and caregivers. The process is extremely weak, and this is putting a lot of mothers \caregivers in financial strain. The experience of most women who file for maintenance shows that the system is full of unnecessary loopholes that disadvantage the mothers/ caregivers and their children.
For example, the reports of men who come to the maintenance court with forged paylips , birth certificates of children from their extended families, with claims that these are their children and therefore they need to pay less maintenance for their children. The court officials simply take the father's word without verifying the documents .The filing process for maintenance is full of loopholes that could be easily corrected by a simple investigation, which the officials do not do. These loopholes drag the process and place the mother and the child in financial and emotional difficulty. The process makes it too easy for fathers to dodge maintaining their children because the documents they bring are not verified. The system is useless, and it is not good enough that the department responds that they do not have funding to investigate properly. The process requires that the investigation be done correctly. If not, the fathers will never be held fully accountable for their children, and they will always underpay, even when they have enough money to do more for their children.
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Affairs should take the initiative to get the correct bank statements and payslips should always be confirmed by the employers .Given the growing use of fraudulent documents in South Africa, the court should have best practices ; otherwise the process is unreliable and if these documents are not verified , then the entire process is useless.They should also provide an affidavit attached as an oath , in cases where false information presented to the court,’it will be held against them . According to the law, the court officials can access information about defaulting parents to speed up the process [2]. The department should do what it needs to do to verify the information . There is no excuse that is good enough to bypass the verification process.
In this case we make our demand clear to Ms Mmamoloko Kubayi & the Department of justice to act on helping women who are unemployed and struggling to put food on the table .
DEMANDS
.We demand that the Minister and the department verify documents brought by father\parent before the court date.
. We demand that the one who claims that they have more children should be the one who should either bring the DNA proving the child is theirs, or an affidavit “from” the mother of the child stating that they have a child together.
. Every transaction should be on record and linked with cell phone numbers. Every 3 months, the respondent should update the court if their cell phone number changes.
Why is this important?
Why is this important
This is very important for women who are struggling to make ends meet financially not to be taken advantage of.The real fact is that it is the Department’s responsibility to make sure the system works effectively to lift the heavy burden off of the mothers\ caregivers as they hold a huge responsibility. [3] How many more kids should go to bed hungry because the system is failing them? We need investigators to work fairly to verify documents and not rely on the father’s / parents document.
Ms Pertunia Ngobese , who applied for child maintenance in January 2025 , says that the application process “ put a strain on her “as the court kept postponing dates about four times. By law, this is wrong as the court should have granted Ms Pertunia a maintenance order as the father was absent various times , even though he knew about the court date. It was not the maintenance officer’s place to keep calling and begging the father to attend the court , She says, “even after the waiting process, the father still came back with missing documents, which meant the case to be postponed again.He just did not care, mean while she was struggling to even put food on the table for her child. When he finally came to court I was already angry.The maintenance officer did not bother to verify the documents. I tried pointing it out but she ignored me. It was as if she's rushing the process to be over. Eventually The father told the court he got 5 kids his supporting and further continued to lie and said his salary is R 12,000 i stayed with this man 3 full time years his only got 1 child and his salary is R 22,000 The documents he showed the court were fake if the court have verified them same day it could have saved time.I feel defeated and failed by the system.’
We want every child to be maintained as rightfully by law no child should go to bed hungry .By signing this petition you agree that the Minister and department of justice should verify documents presented by the court before final court order.
#Justice for the childrens
Reference
https://www.justice.gov.za/vg/mnt.html- https://www.derebus.org.za/failure-to-pay-maintenance-revisiting-the-remedies-in-the-maintenance-act
- https://www.google.com/search=women+suffer+because+of+child+mantainance&oq=women+suffer+because+of+child+mantainance&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTM2NzU1ajBqOagCCLACAfEFzZpMxwnU0Tk&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
How it will be delivered
by Email
