Cape Town - Justice and and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola has revealed that Western Cape maintenance courts are taking longer than before to issue orders but a child maintenance champion believes the backlog is worse.
Lamola said that the average turnaround time for cases lodged for child maintenance orders against absent parents in the Western Cape rose from an average of 67.11 days in 2019/20 to 74.64 in 2020/21 and increased again to 84.04 days in 2021/22.
But Felicity Guest, who has researched Cape Town maintenance court cases for 11 years, has questioned the data and said though there is a backlog, Lamola’s figures are “implausible”.
The minister had been responding to questions by EFF MP Veronica Mente, who had asked for the average turnaround time in cases lodged and the issuing of maintenance orders.
Lamola said there are 13 219 matters pending before the courts nationally. There are 2 386 cases before the Western Cape courts – the second -highest across the country.
Gauteng courts are processing 3 199 cases; Eastern Cape 1 377; Free State 1 236; KwaZulu-Natal 1 878; Limpopo 464; Mpumalanga 826; North West 1110; and Northern Cape743.
Lamola said that the department started capturing data in 2019/20.
He did not explain why there was a slowdown in issuing of child maintenance orders.
Lamola’s spokesperson, Chrispin Phiri, did not respond to queries.
Guest, who founded Child Maintenance Difficulties in SA, said the numbers were implausible as the city only has one maintenance officer serving the whole metro, while the courts were packed with women seeking orders.
She said even though the figures showed a backlog, they create a false impression that “the courts are sufficiently resourced to manage the demand”.
“One can go to any court anywhere in the country and see how many people attend each court daily. Many spend the whole day there before they are attended to,” Guest said.
She said there are 52 maintenance courts across the province.
“If we take the figures released, that would mean on average each court is processing 18 new cases a month. Nationally there were 77 778 cases divided by 459 courts, which would mean they are processing 14 cases a month.
“Cape Town (Magistrate’s Court), according to their figures finalised for 2020/21, processed 367 cases, which equates to 30 cases a month, which equates to 1.39 civil cases a day. On any given day there are up to 30 women at the Cape Town maintenance court.
“In 2013, there were three maintenance officers in the city. In 2022 there is one maintenance officer and he is overworked (for the) Cape Town court area – from Blouberg to Claremont,” Guest said.
She said anecdotal evidence on her Facebook page, Child Maintenance Difficulties in SA, which has 77 600 members, 18 200 of which are in the Western Cape, shows that the average case takes between six and 12 months.
Citing her 1 500-participant survey, she said its result showed that 53% received no maintenance and 25% received less than R1 000 a month.
Guest said serving court papers is a major hindrance to resolving maintenance cases and that this duty is often given to the parent.
She said she has been requesting meetings with Lamola for years, but to no avail.
“The many challenges (around child maintenance) are not being dealt with in Parliament as the politicians are not properly informed.”
