Sawi Hausiku

RUNDU – Over 20 mothers who receive their child support money at the Rundu Magistrate’s Court have expressed frustration over payment delays.

The Maintenance Act 9 of 2003 mandates financial support for children, but the mothers say its implementation has not been effective, leading to delays and difficulties.
“We have been struggling and fighting over this process for more than five years now. 

We just came out of a long holiday, and we do not have money to take our kids back to school,” the mothers said.
The mothers who spoke to Nampa asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, but complained that the delay in payment was harming their children.

“The delay in paying out the child support money forces us to approach loan sharks at the end of the day, who also add high interest rates, keeping us in this vicious cycle of debt,” they stressed.

The child support amount is deducted from the respective fathers already on the 20th of each month, but they only receive it a couple of weeks thereafter.
“This is just not right, we receive this money while another month is about to start, and it’s just not fair for the wellbeing of our children and the positions the delays put us in,” they said.
The mothers pointed out that things changed when the magistrate’s office asked them to start providing bank account numbers, compared to the previous system where they used to receive hard cash.

Head of Administration at the Rundu Magistrate’s Court, Rufinus Hikerwa, confirmed the delay in payments, saying they do not receive the payments on time from the various ministries, such as education, defence, as well as safety and security, where the deductions are made.

“At times, our office is forced to call them to get the reconciliation from them for us to allocate the funds to the mothers. There shouldn’t be any need for us to remind the ministries when they should just be doing the work,” Hikerwa said.

He said they have taken up the issue with the various ministries, but the problem persists.
Public Relations Officer in the Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations, Delila Salatiel, said their head office was never informed about the complaints, but promised to follow up on the issue.

An accountant in the finance department of the Directorate of Education at Rundu (who did not want to be named) said after funds are paid over into the magistrate court’s account, they send a reconciliation form to them, which the court uses to account for the money they received. The accountant said depending on their workload, this reconciliation form sometimes reaches the court after a few days.
-Nampa