The harsh economic conditions have resulted in a number of men failing to comply with maintenance orders. This has left the courts with no option but to incarcerate the defaulters. This is causing a strain on most of the country’s prisons, which are already overcrowded to begin with.
Masvingo provincial magistrate Langton Ndokere said:
The court normally gives suspended sentences and extends days for the defaulter to pay the maintenance arrears.
Usually the amounts are however, so high that most fail to pay by the given time, leaving the court with no option but to send that individual to jail.
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