Child maintenance defaulters will soon have nowhere to hide.
The Department of Justice and Correctional Services is starting to use registered cellphone and telephone numbers, company registrations, credit profiles, court judgments, property purchases, sales and transfers as well as vehicle regulations to trace child maintenance defaulters.
The government believes this will ease dependency on social grants, Justice Department spokesperson Stephans Mahlangu said.
“After the introduction of the amended Maintenance Act, the department embarked on a communication campaign and people were informed through radio, TV, outreach programmes and information sessions and social media about the new laws relating to the tracing of the defaulters. The project is not ambitious and overdue. At this stage the Department is seeking to enhance the already existing system.”
The system will be able to list all enquiries made on a defaulter or beneficiary, including information of the person making the inquiry and those made by courts. Investigators are expected to make use of Consumer Protection Act data indicating the defaulter, their beneficiary or their company’s financial ability and viability.
Mahlangu said the department has controls in place to comply with the POPI Act. “Only designated officials will be trained and given access to the system and the utilisation of the system will also be monitored on a weekly basis by the supervisors of the designated officials and there will be no unauthorized usage of the system.”
Mahlangu stressed that the proposed system will be secured, protecting information against infiltration by unscrupulous third parties and unauthorised users, allowing the department to monitor usage and trace it back to an unauthorised user. He said tracing is expected to be available in about 600 magistrate’s courts and Department of Justice and Constitutional Development regional offices across the country.
