Question NW295 to the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
31 March 2022 - NW295
Chirwa, Ms NN to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services
What (a) is the current total number of cases of child maintenance that are being held in abeyance because the parents against whom support is claimed cannot be found and (b) steps are being taken by his department to trace parents in instances where a parent who must pay support cannot be found?
Reply:
a) The Department’s Maintenance Integrated Case Management System (Maintenance ICMS) data collection system does not collect information on the number of cases kept in abeyance specifically for cases where parents against whom support is claimed cannot be found. The Maintenance ICMS captures data relating to court processes and therefore does not specifically collect data on maintenance investigation processes which are administrative processes conducted outside of the court related processes before or during formal enquiry as part of maintenance file preparation. As Maintenance Investigators carry out investigations on a variety of issues which are critical as part of preparation of maintenance cases, these were not captured because of lack of human resources capacity. However, other efforts are underway to establish monitoring systems for the administrative processes relating to case preparation functions carried out by court support officials (Maintenance Clerks, Investigators and Officers). These include the linking of the TransUnion System to the Maintenance ICMS and the development of the Person Verification System (PVS) for Family Matters. The first PVS to be developed by the Integrated Justice System in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Family Advocate (OCFA) will be the Maintenance PVS.
b) The Department is currently using the services of a third party provider, a credit bureau institution (TransUnion), to help to investigate maintenance respondents in first time applications and in cases where the respondents have defaulted in maintenance payments. This system is used to track and trace the respondents’ whereabouts; their financial information; and the assets to ensure that the Magistrate is provided with sufficient information to hold formal enquiries in respect of the various types of maintenance applications applicable. This system enables the Department to bring to court maintenance respondents and defaulters who may not want to be found to ultimately pay maintenance for their children as obliged in terms of the law. Third party provider systems are not the only means used to conduct investigations to track and trace the whereabouts of the respondents or Defaulters. Maintenance Investigators use a host of other sources to gather both personal and financial details of parties involved in maintenance applications. These include information from Municipalities Vehicle Registration Offices, Department of Labour, Department of Housing; South African Revenue Services (SARS) etc.
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