Address by the Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, the Hon JH Jeffery, MP, at the Maintenance Indaba, Sebokeng
Programme Director, Mr Malema,
The Speaker of Emfuleni Municipality, Mr Msebenzi Gqelosha,
The Regional Head, Ms Emily Dhlamini,
Representatives from SAPS, the NPA, the Master’s Office, the Family Advocate and Legal Aid SA,
The Sheriff for Vanderbijlpark,
Colleagues from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and the Department of Social Development,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Sanibonani, good morning to you all.
Our children and our youth grow up facing many challenges. Many grow up in communities where poverty, inequality, violence, drug abuse, neglect and a lack of family structure are a reality. For many the home is not a safe and secure place.
Our department has over the past 20 years been committed to ensuring the protection of children in our society. One of the areas which have a profound impact on the lives of children is that of maintenance.
The law says that parents are jointly responsible for maintaining their children, yet today the responsibility of financially maintaining children often rests on the shoulders of single mothers who in many instances do not receive the financial support from the biological father. These single mothers then struggle to bring non-paying fathers to book.
The theme of today’s indaba is the Role of Men in support of the Departmental Maintenance Turnaround Strategy. That is why we are so pleased to have representatives here from organisations which promote responsible fatherhood.
A recent study on the topic of absent fathers – or as the title of the report calls them, “ATM Fathers”- finds that South Africa has a high number of absent living fathers. They define an “absent father” as fathers that do not live with their children, do not maintain communication and do not pay maintenance.
The proportion of African children under the age of 15 years with absent living fathers increased from 45% to 52% between 1996 and 2009. There has also been an increase for Coloured children (from 34% to 41%), and for White children (from 13% to 15%).
The study found that fathers who had regular contact with their children either daily or several times a week or a month were more likely to contribute to the financial support of their children.
In 2012, 48% of South African children had fathers who were living elsewhere than in their home and 16% had fathers who had passed away – this means that 64% of our children, that’s more than half, are growing up today in our country without their father in the home. In many of these cases, this means that other members of the family - mostly mothers or older siblings – have to take care of the children.
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has in the past, introduced various interventions to improve the maintenance service delivery system. The recent Maintenance Turnaround Strategy is another intervention by our department to ensure that every child has access to food, shelter and other necessities.
The department’s Gauteng Region has declared that the aim of 2015 is to focus on engaging fathers to be part of maintaining their children.
During the past month we celebrated Women’s Month. Government engages in various activities to celebrate Women’s Month and part of these celebrations is to inform women of initiatives to improve the maintenance system.
Some of these initiatives include:
- The introduction of EFT payments where parents are encouraged to open bank accounts so that their maintenance money can be transferred electronically to their accounts – this means that they don’t have to take time off to travel to court or to stand in long queues in our courts. It is also safer. (Those who are not on the EFT system yet are mostly non-nationals or persons who do not have ID documents required by banking institutions to open a bank account. Our
- Department is continually engaging with the Department of Home Affairs and banking institutions to assist these clients.)
- We also strive to ensure that a maintenance matter is finalised within 90 days.
- Employers are encouraged to make direct payment of deductions to maintenance beneficiaries.
- From the date of receipt of the money the court is expected to pay out the money within four days.
- Unclaimed maintenance money and the tracing of defaulters is a priority.
- The Gauteng Regional Office is also in the process of entering into service level agreements with different sheriffs from different courts within the region to ensure that court processes are served within the specified period.
We are striving, all the time, to deliver better services. As you know, Sebokeng used to be a branch Court of Vanderbijlpark Magistrate Court and was proclaimed as a fully functional court in 15 May 2013. This meant improved services to the community of Sebokeng.
Later this morning, we will have a question and answer session. This is very important to us, as we would like to hear from you. We are here to listen to the people and to see where we can help you.
Currently Sebokeng Court has 5006 maintenance beneficiaries registered on Standard Bank Business Online, which are maintenance matters where the maintenance money is paid into the bank account of the beneficiaries.
Sebokeng also has 546 direct payments and, as an example, a total amount of R2,3 million was paid out to maintenance beneficiaries for the month of July 2015. This amount is never less than R1 000 000 per month. In terms of Direct Payments (or Section 19 applications) the office has 4100 employees/respondents listed on JDAS (Justice Deposit Accounting System) and 328 companies pay over deductions for maintenance directly.
The department has also been increasing the number of Maintenance Officers and Maintenance Investigators and has appointed complaints managers in all regions and the national office to manage maintenance services complaints from the public. This means that we are better equipped to find those people who do not pay their maintenance.
We are very pleased to be handing over some cheques to maintenance beneficiaries this morning. We know that in many cases people have been struggling to get the other parent to pay maintenance and we know that these payments will help a great deal in making their and their children’s lives better.
Finally, in closing, I want to stress how important the community is in the lives of children.
In another study earlier this year, by Rebecca Helman of UNISA, children who had absent fathers were interviewed. Many of them spoke about their own fathers as absent or disengaged, but almost all of the young people, both male and female, identified other people in their families and in their community who acted as role models, nurturers and supporters in their lives.
These included uncles, neighbours, teachers, aunts, grandparents, pastors, community members, siblings and friends.
This proves that the elders are right when they teach us that it takes a village to raise a child. And that is why we say umntwana wakho, ngumntwana wam’, your child is my child and my child is your child.
Siyabonga. Thank you!
