Bulawayo doctor in desperate measure to escape prison for non payment of maintenance

Prominent Bulawayo medical practitioner Dr Nkonzo Ndebele who is on the verge of finding his way to prison for failing to pay maintenance has approached the constitutional court to try and outlaw statutes prescribing custodial sentence for failure to adhere to maintenance court orders.

Appearing at the Bulawayo magistrate court on Friday, Dr Nkonzo Ndebele through his lawyers Job Sibanda and associates asked the court not to proceed to try him for failing to pay maintenance for his 6 year old daughter as ordered by the court claiming that section 23 (4) of the Maintenance Act is ultra vires the new constitution. Ndebele's constitutional challenge has been tabled in the constitutional court under reference CCZ 35/15 but the date of the constitutional court sitting has not been determined yet.

In his papers demanding the court to stop proceeding with his trial, Ndebele claims that the Act is unconstitutional in that the section in the Act allows only for one defence to be entered into on the charge of failing to pay maintenance as ordered without expanding how that makes the provision unconstitutional. The lawyers forced the court to accept to have the matter put on hold until the constitutional court determination as they believe that their client would be charged under an illegal provision.

Section 23 of the maintenance act states that anyone who fails to comply with a court order to pay maintenance as determined by the courts is liable to imprisonment for a period not less than one year and may be ordered to pay the outstanding maintenance amounts. The act further states that if a person had previously been convicted of the same case and further defaults the new defaults will be handled as a new case and another similar sentence maybe imposed.

According to information provided to media which was not immediately verifiable Dr Nkonzo has previously been dragged to the courts for failing to adhere to the maintenance orders and escaped with a suspended sentence which compelled him to pay up the outstanding dues. This appearance being his second on the same matter is bound to see the prominent doctor go into custody for up to a year plus settlement of outstanding amounts.

No comment could be obtained from the doctor's lawyers. The case is expected back in the magistrates court on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Ndebele's challenge of the statues in the Constitutional Court is bound to bring a landmark case to the country's maintenance laws which women rights organisations still believe to be too lenient to defaulting fathers.