Maintenance defaulters be warned
ALEXANDRA - The net is closing in on maintenance defaulters as government strengthens enforcement measures.
THE NET is closing in on maintenance defaulters as government strengthens its enforcement measures.
This was said by President Jacob Zuma at this year’s Women’s Day celebrations in Durban. The celebrations were also held at the Union Buildings in Pretoria and officiated by Premier David Makhura.
President Zuma said the justice ministries were tightening the child maintenance system in a bid to stop men neglecting their children. He implored men to own up to their parenting responsibilities, and said enforcement measures would speed up the adjudication and payment processes to support women who struggle to care for their children on their own.
He said the process involved courts prioritising and concluding maintenance cases faster and that payouts were now done by electronic transfer into recipient’s account in four days, unlike before when it took months to process.
He said despite many challenges still to be resolved, government had given women dignity and restored their rights to citizenship by enabling them to get identity documents without having to seek approval from husbands, male relatives, or even testimonials from male children. He added that mothers could now register their children’s births immediately after delivery at clinics and hospitals without a husband or partner’s confirmation.
Zuma also stated that the departments of health and social development were conducting a national contraceptive and fertility campaign to expand healthcare for women. This, he said, could increase the life expectancy to 60.
He further stated that the Department of Health will, from this month, launch the Mom Connect programme which will provide pregnant mothers health advisory information via cellphone; and that anti-retroviral treatment for those who are HIV positive would from next year be accessed from a CD4 count of 500, rather than the current CD4 count of 350.
The president also urged citizens to use the celebration to reflect on gains made in improving the status of women, as well as the challenges still to be resolved.
