News / Local
Civil servants top maintenance cases
08 Jan 2015 at 06:34hrs | Views
A TOTAL of 4,152 maintenance cases were handled at the Maintenance Court in Bulawayo in 2014 with civil servants found to be the biggest culprits in failing to take care of their children.
The maintenance cases have continued to escalate in Bulawayo as 2,980 cases were recorded in 2013 while 2012 had 1,370 cases.
A Bulawayo magistrate who declined to be named for protocol reasons said soldiers and police officers were the worst offenders.
"It's always been the trend that soldiers and police officers are the ones who are always being brought to court. I don't know really what is causing this. It could be because of their recklessness or something," said the magistrate.
The magistrate said the other reason why members of the uniformed forces were regulars at the maintenance courts was because they often work away from their homes.
"They are transferred to various bases and stations away from their homes. It is natural, especially among men. People don't want to be deprived of their conjugal rights and they end up engaging in these 'one night stands,' conceiving children with women they are not committed to," said the magistrate.
Institutions that assist women in pushing for maintenance lambasted the uniformed forces members for showing low levels of discipline and acting irresponsibly.
Director of Zimbabwe Young Women Network for Peace Building, Grace Chirenje, said the nature of their jobs demanded that police and soldiers be exemplary.
"It's really sad that people who are supposed to be leading the way in terms of discipline are the ones who are acting irresponsibly. It will be good if they showed high levels of discipline even in smaller duties like taking care of their families," said Chirenje.
She, however, said other men in different professions were equally guilty as they were being pushed to look after their off springs.
Justice for Children Rights director, Caleb Mutandwa, said the uniformed forces were notorious for engaging in illicit affairs which result in them being dragged to courts.
"The soldiers and police officers are involved in what everyone in society is doing. They have children outside marriage which can result in one being negligent. Some of these soldiers and police also take alcohol and most of them end up failing in their responsibilities because of that," said Mutandwa.
He said the fact that civil servants are employed by the government and their salaries are known to the public does not help matters.
Mutandwa said this makes it easy for women to then make claims.
"They are formally employed by the government which makes it easy for those claiming maintenance to do so. The situation is different where one is not formally employed. It is difficult to claim maintenance from an unemployed person. For the unemployed it's better for their partners to negotiate for out of court settlements, otherwise they could end up getting nothing," he said.
The maintenance cases have continued to escalate in Bulawayo as 2,980 cases were recorded in 2013 while 2012 had 1,370 cases.
A Bulawayo magistrate who declined to be named for protocol reasons said soldiers and police officers were the worst offenders.
"It's always been the trend that soldiers and police officers are the ones who are always being brought to court. I don't know really what is causing this. It could be because of their recklessness or something," said the magistrate.
The magistrate said the other reason why members of the uniformed forces were regulars at the maintenance courts was because they often work away from their homes.
"They are transferred to various bases and stations away from their homes. It is natural, especially among men. People don't want to be deprived of their conjugal rights and they end up engaging in these 'one night stands,' conceiving children with women they are not committed to," said the magistrate.
Institutions that assist women in pushing for maintenance lambasted the uniformed forces members for showing low levels of discipline and acting irresponsibly.
"It's really sad that people who are supposed to be leading the way in terms of discipline are the ones who are acting irresponsibly. It will be good if they showed high levels of discipline even in smaller duties like taking care of their families," said Chirenje.
She, however, said other men in different professions were equally guilty as they were being pushed to look after their off springs.
Justice for Children Rights director, Caleb Mutandwa, said the uniformed forces were notorious for engaging in illicit affairs which result in them being dragged to courts.
"The soldiers and police officers are involved in what everyone in society is doing. They have children outside marriage which can result in one being negligent. Some of these soldiers and police also take alcohol and most of them end up failing in their responsibilities because of that," said Mutandwa.
He said the fact that civil servants are employed by the government and their salaries are known to the public does not help matters.
Mutandwa said this makes it easy for women to then make claims.
"They are formally employed by the government which makes it easy for those claiming maintenance to do so. The situation is different where one is not formally employed. It is difficult to claim maintenance from an unemployed person. For the unemployed it's better for their partners to negotiate for out of court settlements, otherwise they could end up getting nothing," he said.
Source - chronicle
