No Child Support, No Pension Cape Town - Maintenance defaulters have had their pension funds attached in a groundbreaking new legal action against those who financially desert their dependents. In the past fortnight alone, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development pursued its “zero tolerance” approach to maintenance defaulters by attaching the pensions, valued at more than R250 000, of at least two maintenance defaulters. This action was part of the Operation Isondlo campaign, which seeks to bring recalcitrant defaulters to justice. The department receives more than 200 000 new applications for maintenance annually, and there are currently 150 maintenance defaulters who collectively owe R1.5 million. Warrants of arrest are out for all 150, the vast majority of whom are men. Advocate Hishaam Mohamed, the Western Cape Regional Head of Justice, said: “Operation Isondlo was designed to minimise the time maintenance applicants spend in queues, strengthen the investigation process and trace maintenance defaulters through… investigators at courts, the police, Home Affairs and the TransUnion Information Trust Corporation System.” One attachment was made by a maintenance investigator at Worcester Magistrate’s Court, who secured the pension and investment funds of two defaulters for arrears maintenance, the department said. “In the first incident, an application for the attachment of debt against a defaulter’s fixed-term investment was brought because he failed to pay R98 000 for maintenance over three years. The money was later recovered and the defaulter also agreed to pay a lump sum of R100 000… “In another matter this week, at the same court, a sum of R61 350 was deducted from the pension fund of a Worcester defaulter for failing to pay spousal maintenance,” the department reported in a statement. Mohamed said: “There are thousands of defaulters who do not comply with existing maintenance orders, which they committed to when the court order was made. In Worcester alone, there are 112 maintenance default matters under investigation.” In the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court in March, R116 000 was attached from a maintenance defaulter and in other courts, a total of R251 000 and R131 000 were attached in lieu of arrears maintenance in April and June respectively, the department said.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 22:51:27 +0000
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