As the nationwide lockdown continues, fathers are urged to continue their child maintenance payments. Some mothers are struggling to feed their children because some fathers are using the coronavirus pandemic and nationwide lockdown as an excuse not to pay maintenance.
Senior Associate and Attorney at Adams & Adams Attorneys, Shani van Niekerk, says fathers who have lost their income must discuss a payment plan with the mother and also reduce some of their own expenses, such as cancelling DSTV, in order to financially support their children.
“There is no such thing as a payment holiday for maintenance. A child would have starved to death after three months of not receiving maintenance to buy food. Despite the national state of disaster, a maintenance order is not simply null and void because of a pandemic. If you are honestly not able to make the payments as you have previously done, you will have to prove to a court that you have tried all other possibilities to decrease your own financial expenses and at least make some payment and try and negotiate some other possible proposal as to how to take things forward,” says Van Niekerk.
In this video, legal specialist Shando Theron discusses co-parenting during lockdown
