Child maintenance payment system suspended, leaving recipients in financial distress

It has been just over a month since the department of justice and constitutional development suspended electronic payments for recipients of child maintenance and those affected are financially distressed.

Department spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi said investigations are still ongoing.

“The MojaPay system did not crash. On 7 May, fraudulent activities within the system were detected,” she said.

However, she said there is a simple solution recipients can turn to – for now.

Paymens made manually

“Payments are still made manually that require beneficiaries to collect funds from nearest courts,” she said.

ALSO READ: Justice dept halts electronic child maintenance payments amid security breach probe

But this solution was not possible for wheelchair-bound Vuyokazi Ndema from Mdatsane in the Eastern Cape.

She said her child’s maintenance money was not paid last month, even though the money was deducted from the salary of the child’s father.

Ndema said her concern is that no-one from the department alerted her about the issues.

Recipient found out payments manual on Facebook

She only found out about it on Facebook. People who wrote in were facing a similar problem as she did.

“If your maintenance money is garnished through justice and you do not receive your money, the system is suspended due to a security breach. They will give you a form to take to your bank which needs to be completed and returned to court and they will pay you in cash,” one post read.

ALSO READ: Limpopo maintenance clerk found guilty of stealing money meant for child support

Ndema said she couldn’t go to court as she is disabled and does not have money to hire a car.

Masibi couldn’t say when the system would be restored.

Department can’t say when system would be restored

However, she said that this month the department will bring back provinces in stages to the electronic payments and all courts will be back to online payment by the end of the month.

Although Siphokazi Ntantiso, from Ezibeleni in Eastern Cape, was able to reach the courts when she did not get her money on 16 May, she had to endure some struggles.

Since she had no luck of getting her money at the local magistrate’s court, she was then sent to the nearby Queenstown Magistrates Court, but officials tried to turn her away.

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She then escalated the matter to a manager, but they short-paid her, giving her only R1 000.