Vuyokazi Ndema, 46, from Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape, was caught by surprise when she did not receive a bank notification for the child maintenance funds for her daughter in May.
Ndema usually receives her child’s funds through an EFT payment made by the courts on the 18th of each month.
Ndema is one of scores who did not receive the communication that the department of justice and constitutional development would no longer be paying the money to them.
The department's decision to suspend payment of child maintenance through EFT was announced towards the end of last month. The department said it had temporarily suspended its electronic payment for third-party funds, including child maintenance, after it detected fraudulent activities on its online system, MojoPay.
Fund recipients were now expected to collect the funds in cash at the courts.
Ndema said without these funds in her account, she has resorted to taking out loans to meet the needs of her child.
Some children were not able to go to school due to lack of money for transport, and mothers were not able to provide food. Children have gone hungry. Does it get worse than this?
— Felicity Guest, founder of Child Maintenance Difficulties in South Africa
Out of frustration, she called the East London magistrate's court on several occasions without any assistance.
“I phoned the court and they didn’t pick up the phone. Nobody picks up the phone. It keeps ringing,” she said.
Ndema, unemployed and wheelchair bound, said she couldn’t afford to travel to the magistrates court.
Her plight is worsened by her disability.
“I have to hire a car to take me there and that is another cost. I don’t know what is going on in the department of justice,” she said.
Ndema said she only found out there was a problem at the department after she asked some of the beneficiaries in her community if they received the money in their accounts.
This is when she learnt of others who had not received their funds.
Her 15-year-old daughter is the one who stands to lose the most. She uses private scholar transport to commute to school far from her home and couldn’t afford to miss her classes this month.
Ndema said she couldn’t pay for the transport for this month and her daughter was using a taxi which she has to pay for daily.
“I can’t service the needs of my child this month because there is no money. The school is far from where we are staying and she is writing exams. She can’t miss her exams. I have to borrow money. I've had to make debt on top of debt,” she said.
Felicity Guest, founder of Child Maintenance Difficulties in South Africa, told TimesLIVE Premium that the suspension had inconvenienced many beneficiaries who depend on that money for food, transport, electricity and other household bills.
“Some children were not able to go to school due to lack of money for transport, and mothers were not able to provide food. Children have gone hungry. Does it get worse than this?
“Many have to take time off work to go to court to collect the monies. If they are unemployed, they do not have the money to go to the courts,” she said.
Guest, an internationally accredited financial abuse specialist whose organisation has been dealing with maintenance issues in South Africa, hinted that this is just a portion of a systemic challenge faced by many parents.
Lack of training for maintenance officers, lack of understanding of the urgency required and the period it takes for the new applications to be processed are some of the systematic challenges endured by many parents, especially mothers.
She said the maintenance process takes too long. An average time to finalise a new application appears to be no less than a year on average, and arrears take even longer to attend to and could take years.
She established through her work that maintenance officers are not adequately trained, and the results are that interpretations and enforcements differ from person to person and court to court.
She said this affected the primary parent, mostly mothers and the children, who struggle to get financial support.
“The amount of labour required to pursue maintenance and arrears has a cost; emotional, financial and time.
“The courts are not client-friendly. Women often feel shamed by the courts. They are made to feel like ‘gold diggers', ‘unreasonable’ and ‘bitter exes’. One has to take leave if employed. Women often use up more than half their leave attending court. If unemployed, there is a cost barrier to get to the courts and to have somebody look after their young children while going to court. Women give up pursuing maintenance due to the systemic barriers,” she said.
She believes the courts are biased towards the person not wanting to pay the maintenance as there are allegedly no consequences for ignoring court appearances, violating maintenance orders or not bringing the required documents to court.
She said men get reimbursed for costs to attend court, while women do not.
“If they [men] don’t attend a court date, a new date is given. If women miss a court date it is removed from the roll, and they have to start all over again. Denying paternity [is another strategy] to delay the process. Beneficiaries have to pay for attachment costs which often run into thousands of rand,” she added.
Guest said the department didn’t do enough to communicate with the beneficiaries about the latest system suspension.
She added the courts had not been informed that beneficiaries would be collecting from the courts, and they were not prepared. She said there was allegedly a delay in getting cash to the courts — some of which still don't have cash and are redirecting mothers to bigger courts.
“Some recipients live in different provinces from where they [initially] applied. They were told to go to the court where they applied, and some do not have money to get to the courts. For many, it is more than one taxi or bus,” she said.
She believes if the courts were transferring MojoPay garnishee orders to direct debit orders, this would save the department resources that could be used more effectively to improve the system.
“The MojoPay system works as follows, the money is deducted from the father's salary, then sent to national, which then sends it to the regional level to make payments. It is illogical,” she said.
The department of justice said this month electronic payments would incrementally be brought back in the provinces once the banking details of beneficiaries have been confirmed.
Department spokesperson Kgalalelo Masibi said the fraud was detected on May 7 and the department decided to immediately suspend the automatic payment function as a precaution.
She said a media statement was issued to alert beneficiaries about the delay.
She added the duration of the maintenance process for a new applicant to be finalised varied based on several factors. This may include the complexity of the case and the efficiency of employers to implement the court orders and hence some cases can take up to two months to conclude.
She said the department has resources and tools to trace the parents, which include the use of maintenance investigators to trace defaulting parents.
“Further, modern technology and access to various databases significantly enhance the ability to trace defaulting parents.”
She added that in most instances, beneficiaries request the money to be paid via the courts as they feel a sense of security when their payments are processed this way.
“Beneficiaries who wish to switch to direct payments are encouraged to do so by applying for the amendment of the court order to accommodate their preferred method of getting their funds,” said Masibi.
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