Africa-Press – Eswatini. Hhohho regional MP Tanele Magagula has warned of dire consequences if the issue of women contributing equally toward their child maintenance is taken lightly.
The issue has been widely debated along the length and breadth of the country following the Deputy Prime Minister Thuli Dladla calling for women to play their part in the maintenance of their children, instead of leaving it to their spouses.
The regional MP yesterday offered a differing opinion, warning that failing to engage on this issue could prove disastrous for the nation.
As a result, the MP has called upon parliamentarians to debate the issue thoroughly.
MP Magagula said all stakeholders needed to be engaged in coming up with an all-inclusive solution, because it was an issue that was bound to affect their social life.
“We cannot take a decision without involving everyone because it has many scenarios that can lead to violence,” she said.
impregnated
She said some of these scenarios include teenage pregnancy and early marriage.
The MP said most women give birth at an early stage when they are not ready for marriage.
She said there were many pregnancies that happen in high school and if those girls could be forced to pay maintenance, they would be pushed to prostitution and date sugar daddies.
“These girls are normally impregnated by old men who can afford to take care of their children.
If a teenage girl is impregnated by a soldier, for instance, that soldier should take full responsibility because they get paid a lot of money and a school dropout cannot afford to pay a 50 per cent maintenance contribution,” she said.
Magagula said this might also lead to gender-based violence because the law would be automatically forcing the parents of the teenage mother to take responsibility for the upkeep of the child.
She said there were many children who were born out of wedlock and if married women would approach their husbands about paying maintenance for that child, they would be digging their own graves.
The MP also said there was no man in their right mental state that would allow their wives to visit their ex-husbands and offer them money. She said most men were jealous and they would not allow their wives to feed another man’s child, especially one that is better than them.
“We also know that some women have children with different men and we cannot expect them to pay maintenance to all of them.
That does not make sense because that woman might be married to another man in community of property and that law says even if I am working as a woman, that money belongs to both of us and the husband gets to decide how we use it as the head of the family,” she said.
She added that everyone was already angry and all of this could contribute to more violence, leading to a setback from what the country has already achieved in ending GBV.
“There is more concern about this issue, yes it is a good point that has been raised but there is a need for engagement and a lot of debate. These things need to be looked upon and addressed with urgency,” she said.
She concluded by saying the bible also attests that men should be the ones working hard to feed their families.
She said women were already paying their 50 per cent share by carrying the baby and taking care of them until they become adults.
“This thing should not be based on monetary value but should consider the role that is performed by the mother in raising the child,” she said.
Meanwhile, Chief Mgebiseni also added his voice to the debate, saying that culturally maintenance was paid by the head of the family.
He said the father was the one tasked with the responsibility of going to work and feeding their family.
maintained
“This is all new and in the previous years the maintenance responsibility belonged to the father.
He is the one who buys everything for the child so that they may be well maintained,” he said.
He added that if the parents no longer had a love relationship, the child lived with her maternal family or with their grandmother from the father’s side of family.
“Even if the child stays with their grandmother they are maintained by their father’s side by having whatever the family can afford.
The father is the one who also takes care of the child even when they are living with their maternal family,” he said. He said there was a cow that was paid by the paternal family to the maternal family as a fine if the child was not maintained by their father.
“If the child was being taken care of by their mother’s side of the family the father had no right in claiming her dowry.
They first needed to pay a fine and also the maintenance before they could be part of the Lobola process,” he said. He said the man is the head of the family and is the one who should go and work to feed their families.
“The man’s children include their mother so culturally the mother is also a child to that man so there was no way she would pay maintenance while also being considered a child culturally,” Chief Mgebiseni said.
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