Women’s Month shame: thousands of mothers left without maintenance payments

As South Africa marks Women’s Month, thousands of single mothers are reporting that maintenance payments due to them were deducted but never reached their accounts, raising fresh concerns about the country’s family law payment system.

Who is affected and what happened

Advocacy group Child Maintenance Difficulties in South Africa says beneficiaries across the country began reporting in July that garnishee payments due to them had not been received. The group’s founder, Felicity Guest, called the timing especially worrying because it coincides with the department of justice and constitutional development’s annual Access to Justice Week.

Advocates demand answers

“The department’s access to justice programme promotes access to services, including family law and maintenance,”

Guest said.

“Yet, families dependent on the maintenance system are struggling to obtain basic information about why payments have not reached them.”

Guest said the problem is recurring.

“South Africa’s maintenance system has experienced systemic difficulties for years,”

she said.

“Parents can spend months or even years obtaining maintenance orders and pursuing enforcement when those orders are not complied with.”

Alleged shutdown after ‘suspicious activity’

After repeated inquiries and media engagement, Guest said the department confirmed to the media that there had been “suspicious activity” and that the payment system had been shut down. The department has not provided a comprehensive public explanation on what happened, the extent of the disruption, whether beneficiary information was affected, what arrangements are available, or when payments will resume.

Real-life impact

Guest warned that what officials may call a system disruption is a survival issue for primary caregivers. She said,

“For those who finally secure a garnishee order, the expectation is simple: money deducted from the payer’s salary should reach the beneficiary. But when the state payment infrastructure fails, the burden falls once again on the primary caregiver and, ultimately, on the child.”

The maintenance system’s problems are not new. The article notes that concerns were raised as early as 2024 after data provided by the department of justice indicated over 170 000 incomplete child maintenance applications in February 2024.

A mother’s experience

A Gauteng single mother who did not want to be named told the publication she was not getting any maintenance money despite having a parent plan and appearing before a magistrate. She said the father had been responsible for school fees while she paid living expenses; when he stopped paying fees she was left shouldering the costs and was later contacted by a lawyer in February after the school handed them over for being in arrears of more than R10 000.

Calls for clarity

The department was yet to comment at the time of publication.

What advocates want now:

• Clear, public information from the department on the nature and extent of the disruption.
• Confirmation on whether beneficiary data were affected.
• Details on interim arrangements and timelines for resuming payments.

The reports underline growing frustration with a maintenance system that many say leaves vulnerable families without predictable financial support.