S Hlongo

The ANC welcomes recent moves by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to blacklist child maintenance defaulters. The department signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Social Justice Foundation and the Consumer Profile Bureau for the Maintenance Online Listing Project, which is geared towards blacklisting parents who default on maintenance orders. This with about 70% of parents defaulting on maintenance within the first two years of an order and millions of the country’s children on child grants.

The failure to pay maintenance has a negative impact on the best interests of children as well as it undermines the child’s right to be maintained and contributed to the adversities and poverty experienced by many children. In terms of the act, defaulting on a maintenance order is a criminal offence and an offender is liable to a fine or up to one year in prison. The Maintenance Online Listing Project would create a structured, transparent framework, where maintenance obligations are tracked, enforced, and integrated within our financial systems.

The practical implication of this is that potential applicants’ maintenance obligations will now reflect on their credit profiles and form part of their affordability assessments when purchasing a vehicle or applying for a clothing store card. The full implementation of the system will take some time as government must first develop a database to facilitate the collection and dissemination of information. For certainty, maintenance debtors’ information will not be made publicly available.

This is significant as it adds another layer of protection for children and we urge that the system to facilitate it, is speedily developed.