More than 20 mothers who receive child support in Rundu Magistrate’s court have expressed dissatisfaction with the delayed payments.
The Maintenance Act requires financial support for children, but mothers say the implementation is ineffective and leads to delays and difficulties.
“We’ve been struggling with this process for over five years. We’ve only just come out of a long vacation and don’t have the money to take our kids to school,” the mother said.
Speaking to Pickup, the mother asked not to name her for fear of being victimized, but complained that the late payments had negative effects on her children.
“The delay in child support payments forces us to approach loan sharks at the end of the day. He also continues to maintain this vicious cycle of debt,” they stressed.
They say child support is already deducted from each father on the 20th of each month, but is only received in a few weeks.
“This is not right. We may receive this money while another month begins. It’s not fair for the position where the happiness and delays of our children have put us,” they said.
The mother noted that things had changed when the magistrate’s office asked them to begin offering bank account numbers compared to previous systems where they had received past cash.
Rufinus hikerwa, the director of Rundu Magistrates Court, confirmed the delay in payments and said that they were not receiving payments on time from various ministries, including safety and security in the event of deductions.
Sign up for the AllAfrica newsletter for free
Get the latest African news
success!
Almost finished…
You need to check your email address.
Follow the instructions in the email you sent to complete the process.
error!
There was a problem processing the submission. Please try again later.
“Sometimes our offices are forced to call them to get a settlement from them to allocate funds to their mothers, so there shouldn’t be a need to remind the ministries when they should do their job,” Hikewa said.
He said they have taken up various ministries issues, but the issues continue.
Delilah Saratiel, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice and Labor Affairs, said their headquarters were never informed of the complaints and had pledged to follow up on the issue.
After the funds have been paid to a Magistrate Court account, accountants in the finance department of the Education Bureau in Landu, who are told not to be appointed, send them a settlement form that the court will use to consider the money they receive.
The accountant said the settlement form may reach the court in a few days, depending on the workload.
