Feature on deadbeat dads and family support payments

Adventurous toddlers wander the long corridors of the Harare magistrate's court, infants wail, and mothers try their best to quieten them or lull them to sleep. "I want him served with a warrant of arrest for defaulting," instructed a middle-aged woman to the man rummaging for her file among a pile on a cluttered counter. "Do you know his present residence?" the man behind the counter shouted back above the chatter from scores of other women waiting, some arguing over their positions in the queue. "Not anymore. He must have moved house. Perhaps the police could trace him?" the woman suggested hopefully. Listen to women talk about life as a single mother and you often hear the anger over being betrayed and cheated out of child maintenance by deadbeat former husbands. Listen, too, to men seeking to contest paying maintenance and you will hear them whinge, denying any wrongdoing, or gripe that the money they pay has been misused on new boyfriends instead of for the upkeep of their children. Each week scores of single mothers and divorcees throng the magistrate's court in Harare to lodge child support claims against their former husbands or lovers. Some, like Rose Maganya, demand maintenance from unemployed former husbands with no regular income, but insist the men should pay regardless. Her ex-husband, Richard Makamba, lost his job as a general hand at a construction company three years ago when their only child was still a toddler. He has defaulted in payments for the past 10 months and Rose wants the Zim $20,000 (US $24) arrears. "I married her when she had two other children by another man and have looked after those children, sending them to school, clothing and feeding them until she abandoned me for another man living in Epworth when I lost my job. She is not bothered that I am trying my best to maintain my daughter, although I am no longer working," said Makamba. "I think she wants me to support her new family as well." Jobs are hard to find as Zimbabwe's economic crisis continues to worsen. Unemployment currently hovers above 70 percent, inflation has hit 365 percent and is expected to reach 500 percent by the end of the year. The deepening economic problems have created severe hardships for single mothers who depend on monthly maintenance payments for the upkeep of their families. Court records show an average of 40 summonses are delivered every week to defaulting husbands by the messenger of court. The figure does not include many more from poor women who cannot afford summons fees, and resort to seeking police assistance to serve them on defendants. One messenger of court, who asked not to be named, told IRIN it costs more than Zim $3,032 (about US $3) to serve a summons on a defendant outside a 20 km radius of the maintenance court, and Zim $68 for each additional kilometre - fees most women seeking child support say they can barely afford. "We have witnessed an increase in the number of women seeking variations of the initial order because of the high cost of living. The cost of a child's upkeep has risen astronomically," the messenger of court said. Richard Makamba was unaware of the legal requirement which compels men paying child support to inform the courts when they lose their jobs. "Defendants in maintenance cases do not inform the courts about their employment status. Some choose to ignore the matter, hoping it will die away, only to end up being dragged before the courts again. Others opt to evade payment by quitting their jobs and, when they find new ones, do not inform the courts as required by the law," the court messenger said. "Government seems unwilling to guarantee the rights of the children by not giving the issue of child maintenance the attention it deserves. Likewise, women's lobby groups are just good at appearing on television talk shows and attending seminars, which do little to alleviate the plight of single mothers seeking redress," divorcee Bernadette Makaya told IRIN. She noted that there are few female magistrates dealing with maintenance cases who would understand the problems and hardships single mothers face in bringing up children on their own. "The young male magistrates do not know how hard it is to bring up children, clothe, feed and educate them. In any event, they tend to sympathise with the male defendants when passing judgement," Makaya said. Makaya, who was married to a prominent parastatal official, said she is furious that the courts have decided to reduce her monthly maintenance payments by a third, although her former husband still lives comfortably while their daughters are going without basic necessities. She is seeking to overturn the court ruling reducing her maintenance claim. Makaya is an educated and confident woman. Others at the magistrate's court are not so fortunate, and some have difficulty in understanding and completing the forms needed for maintenance claims. It is an issue that Women's Action Group (WAG) legal affairs manager, Josephine Mandangu, says WAG is trying to address with outreach programmes to educate women in rural communities on inheritance laws and maintenance rights. "There is a serious lack of knowledge about the whole issue of maintenance among women and the assistance they can get from us," said Mandangu. At the moment WAG has six field workers covering most of Zimbabwe's provinces, with the exception of Manicaland and Matebeleland South. Mandangu said some women are unaware that they can claim maintenance for themselves, and often initially claim only for their children. When they realise they are entitled to maintenance too, they return to the magistrate's courts seeking to increase their claims. "Married women living together with their husbands can also claim maintenance from irresponsible husbands who do not support their families, as much as husbands can lodge such claims when their wives earn more than they do, but shirk from the responsibility of fending for the family," she explained.