BABY MAMAS MARCH, DEMAND MONEY

MBABANE – “If we should be arrested for our children’s welfare, then so be it.”
These were the words echoed by women who have garnished their ‘baby daddies’ for child maintenance at the Social Welfare Office under the Deputy Prime Minister’s (DPM) Office yesterday.

The ‘baby daddies’ are mostly civil servants in various government departments, including police officers, members of Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force and His Majesty’s Correctional Services.

The women yesterday marched to the DPM’s Office and later to the Treasury Department under the Ministry of Finance, demanding that government releases their cheques for their children’s maintenance which had been deducted from the ‘baby daddies’ salaries.

Irked

The women pointed out that what irked them was that they normally collected their children’s cheques on the first week of every month at the DPM’s Office.
However, it had recently become a norm that they were turned back by social workers who told them that their monies were not available. Narrating their story, the women alleged that their children’s monies had been withheld by the Treasury Department for more than three months.

It is believed that while government had deducted the money from the civil servants, it failed to remit it to the intended beneficiaries.
 This time around, the women highlighted that it was the last straw when they arrived at the DPM’s Office only to be told that their cheques would only be ready next week. 

Cheques

The mothers who were over 50 in number, marched to the Treasury offices in the capital city at around 10am to demand the release of their cheques. The women caused an uproar such that an unknown man, said to be a senior officer within the department, was called to intervene in the matter.

It was evident that ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ as their anger was fuelled when the officer threatened to arrest them if they did not vacate the premises.

The women did not take kindly to the manner in which the officer addressed them and they shouted at him and made it clear that they would rather be arrested than be turn back without their children’s monies.

“My child is doing Grade VII and has an educational trip for which the deadline for payment was last week. With the hope that I would have received the money today, I negotiated with the head teacher and promised that I would pay today but now what am I going to say to him?” one woman lamented.
She went on to state that it was important for her child to be a part of the trip because the head teacher had informed her that it was educational and the pupils would be assessed based on the trip.

She did not state when the school trip would be undertaken.
The furious mothers stayed at the Treasury offices until another official came out and was overheard speaking on his phone for the collection of cheques.
It was later gathered that the official had actually called officers from the DPM’s Office to collect the cheques.

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