DURBAN - MORE than 70 000 fathers in South Africa, who could financially take care of their children, were not doing so.
This was according to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, which documented this number of fathers, after putting in place a Track and Trace maintenance system.
“The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has developed a Track and Trace system, that aims at addressing issues around maintenance defaulters. Moreover, the track and trace system’s first step is to find the maintenance defaulters and bring them before the court,” said Josephine Peta, family advocate from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
She was speaking on Sunday during a Father’s Day webinar, which focused on rights that fathers had when it came to parenting and issues surrounding that. Peta said a significant number of fathers spurned the idea of supporting their children for trivial reasons, and claimed that they were destitute and, therefore, could not afford to pay maintenance.
“We then investigate their financial situation holistically. If they are employed in the formal sector, which is usually best, we can then access their information from the Department of Employment and Labour, and the SA Revenue Service (Sars),” said Peta.
She said if they were part of the informal sector, the department was able to check at company registration offices and banks, to find out how much they were making and what they could afford to pay. “In this way, no one can hide from taking responsibility for their children.”
Alensio Marcus, a spokesperson from Children’s Parliament, encouraged fathers to also contribute emotionally to their children’s lives.
“A father should always be there to support his kids emotionally, or with any kind of support they might need, as well as protect his family with all he has. Fathers should always lead by example for the young ones, who are yet to be fathers,” said Marcus
From the moment a child is born, both parents are responsible for maintaining the child up until the child can do so for themselves.
“The parent’s responsibility is to take care of and to maintain contact with the child, to provide guidance and, most importantly, to contribute to the maintenance and upbringing of the child,” said Deputy Public Protector advocate Kholeka Gcaleka.
The Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu said she felt the financial support that was lacking from most fathers could be a result of South Africa’s brutal apartheid regime past. She emphasised that the government should use a holistic and integrated approach, that would deal with societal challenges, to enforce behavioural change. “We need to go back and create a conducive environment, where boys and girls, men and women, have critical thinking before deciding to have children, so that we can have fewer complaints about the absence of fathers,” said Zulu.
Zulu, together with Gcaleka, celebrated Father’s Day by hosting the webinar.
Daily News