Public Protector SA hears women’s maintenance woes

Strandfontein resident Zulpha Mohamed, a single mother of seven children spoke candidly about her experiences at the Mitchell’s Plain Maintenance Court, and the impact her child maintenance woes had on the financial and emotional well-being of her family.

Ms Mohamed was among a several women and community organisation representatives from areas such as Mitchell’s Plain, Manenberg, Bellville, Parow and Simonstown who attended Public Protector South Africa’s regional public hearing into systemic failures of the country’s child maintenance service on Wednesday January 22.

The hearing was also attended by Rodney Isaacs, provincial head for the Western Cape department of justice, advocate Deon Ruiters, senior maintenance prosecutor in the Western Cape division of the National Prosecuting Authority, child maintenance activist Felicity Guest and Sub-council 17 chairperson Elton Jansen.

Although the engagement was held to hear concerns from across the Western Cape, few attended the hearing at the Lentegeur Civic Centre.

“Four of my children sat without a school because the maintenance office failed us dismally. I just got them into school today. When I filed for non-compliance, my file went randomly missing. I have been sending emails and complaints to every head that I could find online or that I was told to complain to.

“From when I stepped into Mitchell’s Plain Maintenance Court you feel like the villain. You are victimised from when you come in till when you leave. You cry after every single court date,” Ms Mohamed expressed, adding that her maintenance struggles have affected her children adversely.

“My daughter was a confident child – she is broken,” she said.

Felicity Guest, who started a Facebook group called Child Maintenance Difficulties in 2014, which now has over 85 000 members, highlighted the plight of thousands of women who continue to be in abusive relationships with ex-partners due to the failures in the maintenance courts.

She said the failure of respondents, often men, to honour their maintenance payments, is another form of abuse against women and children.

“We have to recognise that this is a form of domestic violence. Money is a tool used to continue punishing the ex-partner. So, in relationships, economic dependence keeps victims stuck in violent, toxic, abusive relationships,” she said.

She added: “Many women choose abuse over poverty because they know that when they leave that case, there is no access to money to protect their children.”

Addressing the hearing, Mr Jansen raised concerns about several issues voiced by child maintenance claimants, including that of systems being offline, incompetent staff and systemic administrative failures.

“If we look at the effect and economic disadvantage towards single parents and their children and what are the outcomes – one lady from Manenberg said how children join gangs and the rippling effect of crime and all kinds of evils in our communities.

“If we see these outcomes then the emphasis must be placed on helping these single parents get the financial assistance from those men who are economically active.

“We must report that the provincial head of the department of justice said that the system is a mess and because the system is a mess, it cripples everything and who is suffering? The people and children, and the ripple effect is gangsterism and crime,” he said.

Mr Jansen, among others, implored maintenance staff to deal with complainants with more compassion, for courts to employ more maintenance investigators, and lifestyle audits to be done on maintenance defaulters.

“I pick up that staff are not adequately trained to deal with people and are not putting the well-being of the child first. I am speaking of personal experience because I remember how my mother struggled as a factory worker to pay university fees. It is not about the mother and father but the child because ultimately the child is suffering.

“When we deal with these maintenance issues, with utmost respect to the maintenance officers because we hear your challenges, when you are dealing with somebody, are you thinking of that child or just the person sitting in front of you?” Mr Jansen said.

Retired maintenance court investigator Clive Petersen said many complainants experience challenges because of a lack of education around the processes to follow and information to submit when it comes to applying for child maintenance.

“Education is the process used to develop someone’s knowledge and skills. We need more workshops to educate people about their rights and the correct procedures to follow and information to submit during their applications, he said.

Mr Petersen, who investigated maintenance matters for 15 years, offered this advice to complainants.

“Find out before you go to court, what information and documents you need to bring with and go to a reputable person for advice. Many non-government organisations working in communities are doing great work to inform people of their rights and what services they can access, but often people go to court with the wrong information,” he said.

Advocate Deon Barnard, Public Protector South Africa’s executive manager for coastal provinces, said the Mitchell’s Plain hearing is part of a national systemic investigation and called on the public to make written submissions to its provincial office.

He said the investigation was sparked by numerous complaints from people across the country.

“Once we have obtained all the evidence, inputs, suggestions and resolutions to the problems, it will be collated into a final report, which will be issued by the public protector at national office.

Mr Barnard said the public protector hears the cry of women who are struggling with maintenance issues.

“That is why have made the effort to hear from each province what the problems are. We are definitely going to put it into a report. In terms of Section 182 of the constitution, we investigate, report on what we find, and if during that reporting process we find that the complaints are substantiated, we issue remedial action,” he added.

To make written submissions to the Public Protector South Africa’s investigation, residents can email its Western Cape representative, Mulao Lamula on wcregistry@pprotect.org.