Thabala headman fails to pay child maintenance

Koketso Kgoboge | Wednesday April 1, 2015 11:20

 

The 36-year-old Oteng Ntwayakgosi was dragged to court by Dekeledi Odiretswe of Ratholo. Odiretswe said she and the Kgosana have two children. One is a Standard Four girl aged 10 and the other is a Standard Two boy of seven.

She told the court that Ntwayakgosi stopped maintaining the two children in July last year. She pleaded with the court to order the defendant to pay P900 for the maintenance of the children.

Ntwayakgosi admitted to being the father of the children, but said the amount that the mother was asking for is too steep looking at his allowance of P3,000 and other commitments. He said he was servicing a loan and other policies.

“Your honour I can’t afford the P900 that she is asking for. I think it is too much because at the moment, from my P3,000 allowance, I am paying a loan of P1,500, funeral policies and other insurances. At the end of the month I am only left with P1,300. I can only afford to offer a maintenance fee of P150 to each of the children every month,” pleaded Ntwayakgosi.

The Chief Magistrate said the amount he is offering is unreasonable and the court has realised that men do not take the maintenance of their children seriously.

“That P150 you are offering is very unreasonable and I don’t think there is any headman that can be that unreasonable, even labourers don’t pay that amount for the maintenance of their kids. The court has realised that men don’t take maintenance seriously. That is why you will commit your allowances towards other costs like loans forgetting that you have children to feed and take care of. You must know that all those things come after the welfare of your children,” said Motsamai.

The court ordered the defendant to contribute P450 per child every month until each of the children attains the age of 18 or the order is varied. Motsamai said that the payments should be made directly to the mother of the children effective this month. He told the Kgosana that failure to comply with the court order is a criminal offence.