Dept names maintenance cheats
2011-09-06 15:49
Cape Town - Following on the heels of the launch of the justice department's online payment system, the department has released the names of maintenance defaulters.
"As we are gathered here today, we are guided by this principle: That the rights and best interests of our children must be our priority concern," Justice Minister Jeff Radebe said at the recent launch of the EFT system for maintenance payments.
Challenges of the programme were that there were many beneficiaries that remain untraced when there was money due to them and men who were evading their responsibility to pay maintenance.
Several defaulters have no ID number or address on record and this makes finding them difficult and the department has released a public list of names of defaulters who owe maintenance and who have had warrants of arrest issued.
Public
The purpose of the programme is not arrest, but to identify the whereabouts of defaulters and ensure that their children are paid the maintenance due to them.
"Our purpose is not necessarily arrest: Our purpose in releasing the names is that the defaulters - who the police could not find - come forward," advocate Hishaam Mohamed of the department told News24.
The department rejected the notion that by making the names of defaulters public, it was in violating their right to privacy.
"We have obtained two legal opinions from our advisers. The legal opinion indicates that when a person for whom a warrant of arrest has been issued, such a person is seeked [sic] by the law. And therefore we're making every effort through the media and other means to locate such a person," said Mohamed.
The department has an initial list of 890 defaulters who owe R2.7m in maintenance and Mohamed said that they were intent on tracking down these people.
The names of defaulters will be published at all courts, police stations and in the media.
"These are names [of people] that the police could not find, for whom warrants of arrest are out, and so we're going a step further, and we believe our people, our community may be able to further assist in locating these defaulters."
This national programme is being rolled out in the Western Cape and government departments will communicate in order to effectively track down defaulters. The programme will also work to locate beneficiaries.
Traced
"This is a national policy as announced by our minister [Jeff Radebe] a week ago. We are doing our bit to implement the policy," said Mohamed.
He said that people could be traced in a different province or country and where SA had an agreement with a foreign country, they would actively seek the return of the individual.
"The moment we are notified of a defaulter on our list, whether the person is in another country - we first look at whether South Africa has a reciprocal agreement with that country.
"If so, we have internal mechanisms to ensure that the person is arrested and brought to court, based on our warrant, of course."
The department will, in partnership with the police, conduct roadblocks from September 15 where maintenance defaulters will be arrested.
The monetary value owed to beneficiaries is almost R19m and they, and defaulters can approach the department of justice and constitutional development for more details.
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