Francistown Magistrate Court this week ordered the Commander of the Botswana Defence Forces (BDF) to facilitate the garnishing of over P52 000 from one of his soldiers’ retirement package to settle his child’s maintenance arrears. The soldier is accused of defaulting on 74 counts of child maintenance.
Initially, Kapala Nelson (59) who was ordered to pay P2008.15 per month as maintenance for his child, had allegedly accrued P 148 463.75 in arrears. But after much negotiation between Nelson, the mother of his child and reconciliation of Court records, he was found to have paid out P96 000 of his arrears.
“Following the intervention of the prosecutor and reconciliation with the accused, the true value of the accumulated arrears was however established to be P53 463.75. Notwithstanding that the present matter has been on the roll since September 2022, and upon this Court assuming responsibility in May 2025 an inquiry was made as to whether the accused intended to settle the arrears,” noted Francistown Principal Magistrate, Tshepo Magetse.
Nelson who turns 60 years this October told Magetse, he would only be in a position to offset the arrears upon retiring from BDF in October 2025. This is when he will be able to use his pension package to settle the arrears.
“It is the Court’s humble view that prosecution of the accused in the present circumstances would serve little purpose, as the object of proceedings for failure to comply with the maintenance order is not punishment for its own sake but the recovery of arrears for the benefit of the child”, pointed Magistrate Magetse.
“The Court’s efforts must be directed towards securing the child’s entitlements. It would therefore serve no meaningful purpose to pursue punitive measures while the child’s interests can be best served by recovery at source.”
Under normal circumstances, court would give Nelson the opportunity to receive his pension package and then transfer the payment to the mother of the child. In this case Magistrate Magetse indicated Nelson’s pension lump sum will be his last substantial remuneration.
“Given his impending retirement, should payment not be directed to the mother of the child, the risk is that the arrears may never be recovered. And subsequent enforcement could prove both impractical and impossible”, highlighted the Magistrate.
The Francistown based Magistrate went to say, “besides, the accused has been pocketing regular paychecks all along and treating maintenance obligations like a distant child he barely remembers.”
Following Nelson’s consent to facilitate the recovery of the outstanding maintenance arrears from his pension package, the Court made its conclusion. It ordered for Commander of the Botswana Defence Force, through its delegated officer to officially confirm whether the accused is indeed retiring and if so, to specify the exact date of retirement.
