Papgeld: Courts flex muscles
It will no longer be the responsibility of single mothers to track down deadbeat dads in search of child maintenance payments.
JANA-MARI SMITH
The grim uphill battle faced by many single parents fighting for child support through maintenance courts in Namibia is set to be eased substantially with the appointment of ten maintenance investigators in nine towns by July.
“The appointment of these officials will hugely resolve many hindrances which have been faced in resolving maintenance matters,” Simon Idipo, the justice ministry spokesperson, confirmed to Namibian Sun.
Ten positions were advertised in March for investigators to be deployed to Keetmanshoop, Ondangwa, Oshakati, Otjiwarongo, Rundu, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay, Windhoek and Katima Mulilo.
Yolande Engelbrecht of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) said investigators will be armed with a wide range of powers, including tracing payslip and asset information through banks and employers, to help strengthen child-support cases.
“The introduction of the maintenance investors will make it harder for people to hide their income. This should help stamp out abuse of the maintenance courts by dishonest persons on either side of the case,” she said.
Currently many get away with providing false information, despite the threat of a N$4 000 penalty or 12 months behind bars, because a lack of investigators makes it hard to establish the facts, Engelbrecht added.
Investigators will do the necessary footwork a case requires, a task that has often fallen on the complainants, mostly single mothers, or overburdened clerks and maintenance officers.
These tasks will include serving court papers, tracing absentee parents and taking statements.
Idipo admitted that cases which require further investigations are challenged now because of a shortage of such investigators. He said once on board, likely by July, the investigators “will immediately resolve this dilemma.”
The child advocate in the Office of the Ombudsman, Ingrid Husselmann, said in terms of the law, both parents are legally obligated to contribute to the maintenance of their children and the maintenance courts are responsible for ensuring that this happens when a complaint is filed.
Husselmann said the Office of the Ombudsman trusts that once the investigators are in place, “most of the issues regarding claims for maintenance will be resolved.”
For the children
Engelbrecht said the appointment of investigators in terms of the 2003 Maintenance Act “is definitely a step in the right direction and is long overdue.”
Although the law makes provision for investigators, none have been appointed since 2005.
“LAC is certain that appointing maintenance officers will definitely assist in timeous, quality and accessible legal services in the plight against challenges faced by the maintenance courts,” Engelbrecht said.
A 2013 LAC study of maintenance matters said a major gap has been the critical absence of investigators. The study highlighted that in South Africa, steep improvements in the maintenance courts were “attributed primarily to the appointment of maintenance investigators.”
She said ideally, going forward, each of the 34 magistrate courts in Namibia dealing with child support should have at least one investigator on board.
Two is better than one
A 2006 – 2007 Demographic and Health Survey found that children are more likely than adults to live in poverty and that only 50% of children between the age of 5 and 17 years of age in Namibia have a pair of shoes, two sets of clothing and a blanket.
“Many of these children might be able to acquire such bare necessities of life through an absent parent’s payment of maintenance,” the 2013 LAC study noted.
Last year a justice ministry writ underscored that laws dealing with child support are based on the rights of the child.
“Sometimes this process gets misunderstood by some as a measure designed to cause friction between the parents, whereas its primary aim is to strengthen the rights of children to be financially managed by both parents. Simply put, the best interests of the child are a priority.”
The 2013 LAC study found that between 4 000 and 5 000 complaints per year were filed at the 34 maintenance courts in Namibia, but only two thirds, or between 2 600 and 3 300, resulted in orders.
Moreover, while complainants on average requested the courts to grant them N$500 in child support, a typical order averaged N$250.
The LAC estimated that this represented around one quarter of the estimated cost of childcare.
In April 2018, Namibian Sun reported that nearly half of all active maintenance cases were ones where parents, mostly fathers, failed to honour court-ordered child-support payments.
A summary provided by the Office of the Judiciary to Namibian Sun showed that out of 31 104 active maintenance cases before 33 Namibian courts, 15 097 were default cases.
The grim uphill battle faced by many single parents fighting for child support through maintenance courts in Namibia is set to be eased substantially with the appointment of ten maintenance investigators in nine towns by July.
“The appointment of these officials will hugely resolve many hindrances which have been faced in resolving maintenance matters,” Simon Idipo, the justice ministry spokesperson, confirmed to Namibian Sun.
Ten positions were advertised in March for investigators to be deployed to Keetmanshoop, Ondangwa, Oshakati, Otjiwarongo, Rundu, Swakopmund, Walvis Bay, Windhoek and Katima Mulilo.
Yolande Engelbrecht of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) said investigators will be armed with a wide range of powers, including tracing payslip and asset information through banks and employers, to help strengthen child-support cases.
“The introduction of the maintenance investors will make it harder for people to hide their income. This should help stamp out abuse of the maintenance courts by dishonest persons on either side of the case,” she said.
Currently many get away with providing false information, despite the threat of a N$4 000 penalty or 12 months behind bars, because a lack of investigators makes it hard to establish the facts, Engelbrecht added.
Investigators will do the necessary footwork a case requires, a task that has often fallen on the complainants, mostly single mothers, or overburdened clerks and maintenance officers.
These tasks will include serving court papers, tracing absentee parents and taking statements.
Idipo admitted that cases which require further investigations are challenged now because of a shortage of such investigators. He said once on board, likely by July, the investigators “will immediately resolve this dilemma.”
The child advocate in the Office of the Ombudsman, Ingrid Husselmann, said in terms of the law, both parents are legally obligated to contribute to the maintenance of their children and the maintenance courts are responsible for ensuring that this happens when a complaint is filed.
Husselmann said the Office of the Ombudsman trusts that once the investigators are in place, “most of the issues regarding claims for maintenance will be resolved.”
For the children
Engelbrecht said the appointment of investigators in terms of the 2003 Maintenance Act “is definitely a step in the right direction and is long overdue.”
Although the law makes provision for investigators, none have been appointed since 2005.
“LAC is certain that appointing maintenance officers will definitely assist in timeous, quality and accessible legal services in the plight against challenges faced by the maintenance courts,” Engelbrecht said.
A 2013 LAC study of maintenance matters said a major gap has been the critical absence of investigators. The study highlighted that in South Africa, steep improvements in the maintenance courts were “attributed primarily to the appointment of maintenance investigators.”
She said ideally, going forward, each of the 34 magistrate courts in Namibia dealing with child support should have at least one investigator on board.
Two is better than one
A 2006 – 2007 Demographic and Health Survey found that children are more likely than adults to live in poverty and that only 50% of children between the age of 5 and 17 years of age in Namibia have a pair of shoes, two sets of clothing and a blanket.
“Many of these children might be able to acquire such bare necessities of life through an absent parent’s payment of maintenance,” the 2013 LAC study noted.
Last year a justice ministry writ underscored that laws dealing with child support are based on the rights of the child.
“Sometimes this process gets misunderstood by some as a measure designed to cause friction between the parents, whereas its primary aim is to strengthen the rights of children to be financially managed by both parents. Simply put, the best interests of the child are a priority.”
The 2013 LAC study found that between 4 000 and 5 000 complaints per year were filed at the 34 maintenance courts in Namibia, but only two thirds, or between 2 600 and 3 300, resulted in orders.
Moreover, while complainants on average requested the courts to grant them N$500 in child support, a typical order averaged N$250.
The LAC estimated that this represented around one quarter of the estimated cost of childcare.
In April 2018, Namibian Sun reported that nearly half of all active maintenance cases were ones where parents, mostly fathers, failed to honour court-ordered child-support payments.
A summary provided by the Office of the Judiciary to Namibian Sun showed that out of 31 104 active maintenance cases before 33 Namibian courts, 15 097 were default cases.
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