Maintenance Payments for Child Support in Southern Africa: Using Law to Promote Family Planning

This article presents some of the legal, social, cultural, and practical constraints facing women who attempt to enforce their right to maintenance (child support) payments in southern Africa. It is based on research by the Women and Law in Southern Africa Trust, a network of women who research women's legal rights in six countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Statutes in all countries in the region provide that a man must support his legitimate and illegitimate children; there are, however, weaknesses in the laws on the books. The social and cultural constraints that influence the enforcement of maintenance laws include women's lack of knowledge of the law, attitudes toward child support influenced by customary law, allegations of women's abuse of maintenance payments, financial and practical problems, and fear of physical violence or other forms of retribution. Maintenance laws are relevant to family planning in that if such laws were more effectively enforced, so that the financial burden of children were more equally shared between women and men, men would have a financial stake in controlling their fertility.