Disbursements Of Child Maintenance Funds Challenging

Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Monday March 12, 2018 18:30

 

When presenting budget proposals for the Administration of Justice in Parliament for the financial year 2018/19, Kgathi stated that they were experiencing challenges to disburse the funds to beneficiaries on time due to the distance and cost of travel on beneficiaries to the established service points.

Any person who has guardianship or custody of a minor child claims child maintenance. However, Kgathi said this has proven to be difficult for the guardians to access the money on time because there is also lack of comprehensive data.

The issue has left a majority of women with the burden of shouldering the duties of providing for their children while awaiting the maintenance fees.

He said the disbursement using government revenue offices system was piloted in Ramotswa in 2015/16.

“Following the pilot, Magistrate’s Courts were requested to carry out data analysis of the service they provide in this regard in their respective stations with a view to determine the number of beneficiaries in their locality and surrounding areas to inform the pilot study and as well as for purposes of exploring alternative disbursements avenues,” he said.

A study conducted in 2010 in Botswana, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, showed that this country was the worst in child support.  

The study also looked at the issue of child maintenance, revealing that the system in Botswana is dysfunctional.

Meanwhile, Kgathi proposed a budget allocation of P286 942 800 for recurrent budget, an eight percent increase from the 2017/18-budget allocation, which was P264 795 960.

He said this would cater for salaries of employees and allowances for ad-hoc interpreters, which were increased from P150 to P300 per day per person.