Maintenance cases on the rise in Zimbabwe

There is an increasing number of maintenance cases at the courts as more and more women resort to legal recourse to compel their ex-husbands or partners to contribute towards the upkeep of the children they neglect. A significantly lesser number of men are using the same route. So far this year, the courts have dealt with 527 cases, 234 in January and 208 in February. During the hyper-inflation period in 2008 when the Zimbabwe dollar considerably lost value, the courts handled 427 cases. However, the number of maintenance cases increased with the introduction of multiple currencies.
In 2009 the courts handled 1 037 cases and 2 174 last year.
The rise in the cost of living, infidelity and knowledge of the laws and orders seem to be the main drivers of the increase.
Maintenance cases are escalating at the Harare Magistrates' Civil Courts where on average 39 cases are heard per day.
These include those who will be seeking upward variations on existing orders after perceiving that income levels for the estranged fathers will have increased.
A magistrate at the Civil Court said: "Maintenance cases are increasing and the workload is huge except on Tuesdays when we attend mostly to prior postponed cases or cases that will be awaiting judgments.
"There are just too many cases and I think sharing the cases or having two presiding magistrates for it will be the solution," she said.
Although many are resorting to the courts, the orders they get are mostly insufficient for the upkeep of the minors concerned per month.
Some of the orders granted are as low as US$30 per month for the upkeep of a single child.
A woman with a seven-month-old baby, who was granted an order of US$40 per month as maintenance, told The Herald that the money was not enough for the child.
"The money is very little as the child needs a lot of things like food, medicines and clothes. Lactogen alone costs US$28 as my child needs four containers and one container is about US$7. Ceralac (a special baby feeding formula) for a month costs $10. On top of that the baby also needs peanut butter, soap, clothes and analgesics," she said.
Another magistrate at the civil court, however, said a child is maintained according to the means of his or her parents.
"The court considers a lot of circumstances before making an order. Income of the parents, the number of people to be supported and the means of the responsible person and the dependant and sometimes parties agree on a certain amount and the court will just effect that," she said.
But the fact that some men are not willing to look after children born out of wedlock or from failed marriages has been apparent. On many occasions they have tried to worm out of paying reasonable amounts for child upkeep with the excuse that they are looking after their other children that they live with.
There have been cases of men offering as little as US$3 a month as the maximum they can afford to give their former partners for child support.
However, in most cases the magistrates have refused to accept such offers and set much higher figures, whi-ch however still fall far below the levels expected by the women.
The Maintenance Act Chapter 5:09 states, "In making an order the maintenance court should have regard to:
(a) the general standard of living of the responsible person and the dependant, including their social status.
(b) the means of the responsible person and the dependant
(c) the number of persons to be supported
(d) whether the dependant or any of his parents is able to work and if so, whether it is desirable that he or she should do so".
Another magistrate said the parent who has custody must not expect the non-custodial parent to foot the whole bill of raising the child, but must also play their part.