Strong maintenance courts needed now more than ever

Armchair critics cannot ignore the efforts of the government in flattening the Covid-19 curve.

We all have our jokes and sometimes uncalled-for critique of the handling of the national disaster. We all know better…

In fact, we have now graduated in the social media School of Political, Economics and Social Reform – ladies and gentlemen, we are the alumni of the School of Better Governance.

And some alumni lament some lockdown measures – not because they disagree, but because they are the collateral damage of the cracks not planned for.

Take single parents who remain heavily reliant on the maintenance courts to remind fathers (and sometimes mothers) to provide for their offspring. The closure of these courts means there are parents out there who honestly have no idea how to put food on the table.

Over the past few weeks, I have come to realise how so many parents, mostly women and even grandparents, struggle to have biological parents pay a reasonable and decent amount of child maintenance. How does a parent do just the bare minimum and seek to even find a discount in these times – or ever?

Children are expensive: from medicals to education, from keeping a roof over their head and food in their stomach – how can someone think it is okay to send R750, meanwhile they park a sleek German car while they pay exorbitant amounts of money for rent in Midrand?

Why compromise on the child’s quality of life but not yours? Why park your fancy car outside a nofee paying school but be content to pay a monthly instalment of R10 000 for a car you will change before the child completes three grades?

The women of South Africa remain the backbone of the family, the carriers of our crosses.

They don’t deserve these economic burdens, just as the children don’t deserve these educational inequalities.

The maintenance courts must assert themselves as courts of value with the mother and the child’s best interests at heart in practice, not just on paper!

Kekeletso Nakeli-Dhliwayo.

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