Payments for child maintenance will be delayed after the IT system for the Justice and Constitutional Development Department (DoJ & CD) was hacked last week. I have sent correspondence to the Regional Head of the DoJ & CD to ascertain the impact of these delays on Western Cape families in particular. We need assurances on how the Department is addressing the current crisis and its plans to prevent future security breaches resulting in delayed maintenance payments.
The system used to administer payments, MojaPay is inaccessible. Parents and guardians are going without crucial relief to feed, house and educate their children.
It is clear that strengthening IT security remains unimportant to national government, as seen in this incident and after the ports closure as a consequence of the last cyber-attack on Transnet. Furthermore, the Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu’s delay in timeously paying out grants to provinces for Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres earlier this year shows the ambivalence of national government in caring for South Africa’s children.
National government must prioritise the needs of children by addressing the serious inefficiencies within their own cyber security to make sure that payments are made timeously.
It is unacceptable that children must suffer for the negligence of an uncaring, incompetent national government. The Children’s Act claims that “A child’s best interests are of paramount importance”, but national government is, in reality, actually working against this mandate.
I will continue to hold national government accountable to ensure that the children of our province are cared for. We believe in protecting the interests of children and we will use every oversight measure at our disposal to effect change to this end.
