Crackdown on child maintenance defaulters

The department of justice in Western Cape is prepared to drag maintenance defaulters from their cars at roadblocks to get them to pay for the upkeep of their children.

Roadblocks are planned for next week.

Hishaam Mohamed, the department's regional head, named and shamed the top defaulters in the province.

Launching the department's turn-around strategy, dubbed Operation Isondlo, Mohamed yesterday released more than 250 names of child maintenance defaulters for whom warrants of arrest had been issued.

These include 50 people who owe more than R2-million in total - two of them are women and 29 are from Mitchells Plain, on the Cape Flats.

"Our operation ... this year once again aims to yield greater success to ensure that children are not left destitute and in poverty.

"In releasing the names of the untraced alleged maintenance defaulters [the department] calls on the public to notify the department and police of the whereabouts of these alleged defaulters."

Mohamed said the department will also trace maintenance beneficiaries and educate women about domestic violence.

More than 160000 maintenance files are being dealt with in the province's 55 courts.

Of these, 84000 maintenance beneficiaries are paid out monthly, a total of R18.9-million, in the local courts.

But, as of June 30, more than 150 beneficiaries could not be traced and their money has been accumulating in trust accounts. The department has managed to trace only 35 of these beneficiaries in the past two months.

Mohamed said the department also planned to use the voters' roll from the Independent Electoral Commission to check beneficiaries' new addresses.