{
  "id": 838629,
  "title": "Women’s Month shame as thousands of mothers left without maintenance payments",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/14/womens-month-shame-as-thousands-of-mothers-left-without-maintenance",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-14T04:45:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Citizen",
    "slug": "the-citizen",
    "url": "https://www.citizen.co.za/news/thousands-of-mothers-left-without-maintenance-payments/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "As South Africa observes Women's Month, a growing number of single mothers are finding themselves without child maintenance payments, highlighting the shortcomings of the justice system that is supposed to protect them. The Child Maintenance Difficulties in South Africa advocacy group reported that beneficiaries throughout the nation are still awaiting garnishee payments that did not arrive last month, even as the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development promotes its annual Access to Justice Week.\n\nFelicity Guest, the founder of Child Maintenance Difficulties, expressed her concern about the timing of this issue. She stated that while the department's access to justice program aims to enhance service access, including family law and maintenance, families reliant on the maintenance system are facing difficulties in obtaining essential information regarding the lack of payments.\n\nGuest emphasized that the maintenance system in South Africa has been plagued by systemic issues for years. Obtaining maintenance orders and enforcing them when parents do not comply can take months or even years. However, when the state payment infrastructure fails, the primary caregiver bears the burden, ultimately affecting the child.\n\nIn July, beneficiaries across the country started reporting that garnishee maintenance payments owed to them had not been received. After numerous inquiries and media engagement, the department confirmed that there had been \"suspicious activity,\" and the payment system had been shut down. Nevertheless, no comprehensive public explanation has been provided by the department about what happened, the extent of the disruption, whether beneficiary information was affected, available arrangements, or when payments will resume.\n\nThis government-acknowledged disruption or technical problem remains unresolved for mothers like a single mother from Gauteng who has a parent plan in place and has appeared before a magistrate. Despite having a plan and paying for her child's living expenses, she is not receiving maintenance money. Her father neglected to pay school fees, and now she must bear the entire financial responsibility.",
  "summary": "Beneficiaries across country report money deducted salary not reaching them as no comprehensive public explanation extent disruption information affected.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "IOL",
        "title": "Path to WTC 2027 final: What South Africa needs to make the final again",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/14/path-to-wtc-2027-final-what-south-africa-needs-to-make-the-final-again",
        "published": "2026-08-14T03:45:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}