04 Feb 2015

The two Special Child Maintenance Courts in Francistown and Gaborone are crucial in the dispensation of the justice system, Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo has said.

Speaking at the official opening of the legal year in Gaborone on February 2, the Chief Justice Maruping Dibotelo said the courts had not yet been rolled out to other magisterial courts.

He noted that whilst most of the cases were less complex than most criminal and other civil matters, they were registered in large numbers, adding that in 2014 alone a total of 4533 child maintenance cases were registered in all the courts.

Their disposal rate stands at between 70 per cent and 80 per cent and it is hoped that once the mobile courts become fully operational they would amongst others ease the pressure on some of these courts.

 However once rolled out to other magistrate courts they will need more magistrates and support staff to deal with these cases, he said.

Meanwhile Justice Dibotelo said the Administration of Justice (AOJ) was putting in place measures to address the problem of unclaimed child maintenance. 

The chief justice noted that the reasons advanced for non-collection were that the beneficiaries were deterred by huge costs of travel and long distances to the collection facilities.

Another problem is the exorbitant costs associated with the use of facilities, such as Botswana Post which in most instances are closer to where the beneficiaries of these funds are resident.

The treasury cashier, another user friendly alternative to the disbursement of the child maintenance money, has also frustrated their efforts of ensuring that the intended beneficiaries, most of whom are children living under the most challenging circumstances, enjoy the benefits of the Child Maintenance Orders issued by courts daily. 

“It is no exaggeration that travel expenses to court facilities in many of the remote parts of our country, often exceed by far the amount of child maintenance to be collected.

As long as the current collection points for child maintenance monies remain unchanged, we are likely to witness a continuing increase of uncollected child maintenance money, thus rendering the making of child maintenance orders by our courts insignificant”, he said.

Justice Dibotelo however said the Administration of Justice had over the years done best within its means to encourage the affected parties to come forward to collect these funds and regrettably their efforts have not borne much. 

As a result, he lamented, during the current financial year the department have deposited P1 188 971.50 into the Consolidated Fund in respect of Gaborone alone. ENDS