Windhoek
Justice Minister Albert Kawana has revealed he is in the process of engaging the police to help trace absentee fathers, while the law is being studied to come up with more effective mechanisms to trace such fathers.
He warned that government would even go as far as amending the law so that it can have the powers to place photographs of maintenance defaulters in the print media.
“The law will also be amended so that in addition to putting your photograph in the print media, you will also be named in the electronic media such as radio and television,” Kawana warned.
“The purpose of the Maintenance Act is to force parents who are irresponsible to take care of their children. The culture of leaving everything to government should stop,” Kawana said.
He also indicated that there have been cases involving men who tampered with DNA test results in an attempt to escape their responsibilities as fathers.
“Some men have brought shame to their fellow men by indulging in such unacceptable behaviour,” he said.
The minister revealed that between April 2014 and last month, 182 men disputed paternity. Shockingly, he also indicated that after DNA tests were conducted it turned out that 70 of the 182 men were not the biological fathers.
Most of the disputes emanated from Windhoek which accounts for 78 of the reported cases, followed by Gobabis with 11 and 10 each in Eenhana and Walvis Bay.
“It is clear from this figure that too many women are giving their children to men who are not the biological fathers,” said a worried Kawana yesterday in the National Assembly.
Kawana also stated that the days are numbered for mothers who abuse maintenance money – intended to cater for the well-being of their children – to buy, among others, alcohol, lipstick and designer shoes.
Despite urging mothers who are staying with children that do not receive maintenance to report their plight to magistrates’ courts, Kawana said government would not allow a situation where maintenance money is abused while children suffer.
Kawana made the remarks yesterday in the National Assembly when he delivered a ministerial statement on the implementation and possible amendment of the Maintenance Act of 2003.
Kawana further lashed out at some mothers who have developed a habit of dumping their children with grandparents, adding: “At the same time they abuse the maintenance money they receive from the fathers of the children.”
The minister said such behaviour discourages fathers from paying maintenance, ultimately resulting in the suffering of the children.
“To those mothers who are in the habit of dumping children while abusing maintenance [money], I say time is running out for them. They are simply criminals who deserve to be punished by law,” warned Kawana.
He said the Maintenance Act would be amended to provide stiffer sentences for such behaviour.
The minister also expressed concern about “a worrying culture that has developed whereby high-income earners are targeted by some women and are given children who are not theirs simply for the purpose of receiving and abusing maintenance money”.
He said a number of men have fallen victim to the scheme and after paying maintenance for years they are later told that it is not their child.
“This brings shame not only to the man but also the entire family of the man,” he said.