30 GARNISHEE ORDERS FOR SOLDIERS IN 3 MONTHS

MBABANE – In the past three months, the Manzini Magistrates Court has been issuing at least a garnishee order every three days against a member of the UEDF.

This is if garnishee orders for maintenance against members of the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force (UEDF) that have been issued by the Manzini Magistrates Court since mid-October 2020 to late January 2021 are anything to go by. Garnishment is a legal process for collecting a monetary judgment on behalf of a plaintiff from a defendant. Garnishment allows the plaintiff to take the money or property of the debtor from the person or institution that holds that property.

Garnishee

A garnishee order must be issued by a magistrate in a court near where you work or live and you must be asked to appear in court. The reason for this is to give you an opportunity to show whether or not the debt is legal and how much you can afford to pay from your salary to clear the debt. The court has issued 30 garnishee orders of various amounts for maintenance and maintenance arrears and they are all against members of the UEDF. This translates to 10 garnishee orders per month and one every three days in respect of members of the army.
Week in and week out, magistrates courts deal with maintenance cases and the applicants are mostly the mothers of the children or other relatives such as grandparents in other instances.
On the days designated for maintenance cases, the courts are usually flooded with women; and the men, in most cases, tell the magistrates that they cannot afford the amounts demanded by the mothers of their children. The men, who include civil servants, sometimes cite that they have other children to maintain or that they are swimming in debt. The courts issue the garnishee orders nonetheless after considering the submissions.

All the 30 soldiers in respect of whom the garnishee orders were issued in Manzini were also in maintenance arrears. Some of them have a number of children with different women while others have a number of children with the same woman. The highest amount to be paid monthly by any of the soldiers as maintenance, according to the garnishee orders, is E4 000. It includes an amount of E3 500 for maintenance and E500 for arrears maintenance. Louis Mandla Shongwe, who is based at St George’s Army Barracks, was taken to court by Sebenzile Manana and she obtained the order in October last year. Shongwe was ordered to pay E4 500 in total per month, which comprised the amount of E3 500 for maintenance and E500 monthly to settle his arrear maintenance of E3 500 for the month of September last year.

Lucky Richard Dlamini, who is based at Mbutfu Army Barracks, was ordered to pay the same amount for maintenance and an additional E500 monthly to settle his maintenance arrears amounting to E10 500, which is for the months of July, August and September last year. He was taken to court by the mother of his child, Hlengiwe Dlamini (nee Thobela). The order was issued in October 2020.

KaGcina Army Barracks-based Patrick Mfanasibili Tsabedze was taken to court by Khethani Tsabedze (nee Mabuza) for failure to maintain their three minor children.
The court issued a garnishee order in the amount of E3 500 per month until the children become self-supporting. In terms of the garnishee, which was issued in October last year, Patrick will pay an additional E500 towards maintenance arrears of E7 000 for the months of August and September last year. On January 25, 2021, Carters Sikhondze of Phocweni Army Barracks was ordered to pay E3 000 towards maintaining four of his children with Gugu Nhlabatsi. The court also ordered him to pay E500 each month to settle arrear maintenance amounting to E12 000. According to the order, he did not pay anything in September, October, November and December last year.

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