How biased maintenance courts force women to shoulder the burden of raising children alone

Child maintenance – the duty to support a child – is more than a right. It ensures children have their basic needs met. It also means single mothers don’t have to shoulder the responsibility of parenthood alone, which can deepen their poverty.

Despite the persistent gender wage gap, in 2023, 42.3 per cent of South African households were headed by women, with the highest prevalence in rural areas (47.6 per cent), particularly in the Eastern Cape Province (48.8 per cent). This disproportionate burden often pushes single mothers towards financial hardship.

In South Africa, child maintenance is regulated by the Maintenance Act, 1998. When a custodial parent, often the mother, seeks support from the other parent, they can apply at their local magistrate’s court. The process involves submitting an application with financial details, such as income and expenses. The court then schedules a hearing to review the case.

Read: Ruling on child upkeep ignores unpaid care

A summons is issued to the other parent (usually the father), who may agree to the maintenance arrangement or contest it.

If the respondent consents to the maintenance amount claimed, a magistrate can then issue an order for the amount to be paid. However, if there is disagreement, a formal hearing is held to decide on the maintenance amount and responsibility.

I have studied gender, social development issues and structural violence for over a decade. Structural violence is a form of violence caused by unjust political, socio-cultural, and economic systems that hinder people’s ability to achieve a good quality of life.

Recently, I was involved in a project focused on child maintenance issues in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. This issue is deeply interwoven with the pervasive influence of patriarchy and patriarchal institutions. Inefficient government systems and gender insensitivity by state officials add to the problems that affect women and children severely.

Our latest research objective was to understand how structural violence contributes to women’s poverty in child maintenance cases. Using an exploratory qualitative design, we interviewed 45 women who had faced challenges in securing maintenance payments from their children’s fathers in Mdantsane, Parkside and the central business district of East London in the Eastern Cape. The fieldwork took place between 2022 and 2023.

Read: Concern as many child custody, upkeep cases abandoned

The women were aged between 20 and 40 and had faced financial hardship, including non-payment of child support. We also interviewed nine key informants from the government, civil society and academia working in the field.

We asked the women about their experiences when claiming child maintenance, their views on the role of child maintenance in alleviating poverty, and their socio-economic conditions and survival strategies, among other topics. The study reveals that women already facing structural inequalities (such as economic, educational, socio-cultural and legal disparities) are most affected by a lack of child support. This forces them to rely on their limited income to raise their children, pushing them further into poverty.

Economic strain

A key theme that emerged from the interviewees was the severe economic strain they faced. Many of the women were in precarious employment and heavily dependent on the government’s monthly child support grant of R530 (about $29.27) a child. Their financial hardship was worsened by the lack of financial support from their children’s fathers.

A significant number of the women expressed deep frustration and disappointment with the justice system, claiming it to be patriarchal and biased towards men. They reported a lack of thorough investigation by court officials, who mostly failed to demand proof of income or bank statements from fathers contesting child support payments.

This led to women feeling that the system readily accepted men’s claims of financial hardship, resulting in minimal or no child support. As a result, these women bore more than their share of the financial burden.

Read: Court: Child upkeep not source of income for women

One woman shared her experience: “The guy works for the government … earning a lot of money, but he was only paying R1,000 for the child and it was not enough. Therefore, we took him to the maintenance court and the court officials asked him how much he can pay, and he said he can only pay R400. They didn’t verify anything; they just took his word, and the money was reduced from R1,000 to R400. This is one of the reasons why people stay away from the court, it looks like they take the side of the man and leave women to suffer …”

Women reported that the experience of applying for child maintenance was traumatic and maintenance officers showed a lack of gender sensitivity. Some court officials showed little awareness or understanding of the emotional and financial toll the process took on women. This institutional insensitivity not only reinforces existing gender inequalities such as economic dependence, the unequal distribution of care responsibilities and unpaid care, but can even worsen women’s poverty.

One key informant said: “In all honesty, the East London courts are really ineffective, inefficient and not women-friendly. The staff … don’t care about the needs of both women and children. Women are struggling and they come to the court to get help, but the system really beats them down and leaves them sometimes worse off.”

Despite child support being a fundamental right for children, the women expressed frustration with the justice system’s inability to enforce fair financial obligations on fathers.

Read: Why unrealistic child support demands are hurting many Kenyan men and their children

One of the women said: “… what made me sad is that when I approached the courts, I was expecting justice and I thought they will look at my side also, but the maintenance officer said he doesn’t want to oppress the child’s father by asking him to pay more, forgetting that I am no longer employed. I have been taking care of the child alone for 16 years … The justice system has taken the man’s side and not me and the child … The man offered to pay a very small amount of money, but the officer didn’t ask for proof of a bank statement, pay slip or anything.”

To sum up, a significant number of women reported deeply negative experiences with the court system. While individual experiences varied, a common theme emerged: the perception of a patriarchal justice system that is unfriendly, ineffective in supporting women, and fails to prioritise the needs of children.

Systemic reforms

The findings of this study underscore the need for reforms in South Africa’s child maintenance system, which is influenced by patriarchal and gender-biased practices that impede the effective enforcement of child support.

Deep-seated biases create obstacles that affect single mothers, limiting their ability to receive consistent and fair child maintenance.

Addressing these institutional challenges requires not only policy reforms, but also a culture shift that recognises the shared financial responsibilities of both parents.

G Nokukhanya Ndhlovu, Centre for Social Development in Africa, Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg.