REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA COMBINED SECOND PERIODIC REPORT UNDER THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLE`S RIGHTS and INITIAL REPORT UNDER THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA supporting. This support includes food, clothing, housing, medical and dental expenses, and education. Children are minors until they reach the age of 18. 378. Secondly, the Child Justice Act, 2008213 was enacted into law. The Act establishes a criminal justice system for children who are in conflict with the law and are accused of committing offences. It entrenches the notion of restorative justice in the criminal justice system in respect of children who are in conflict with the law. The Child Justice Act is discussed in paragraphs 88 to 101 of this report. Improvements to the maintenance system 213 379. The Maintenance Act, 1998 provides the framework for monitoring and implementing maintenance orders. It provides for the handling of complaints received from persons seeking maintenance, who have experienced difficulties with the tracing of maintenance defaulters and the enforcement of maintenance orders, as well as complaints from the respondents on the inability to comply with the maintenance orders and of abuse of the maintenance system. The Isondlo Project helped to alleviate the problem of tracing defaulters through the training of investigators. This project has delivered better maintenance services. 380. In order to protect minor children the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has over the past 20 years been committed to ensuring the protection of children in our society. One of the areas which have a profound impact on the lives of children is that of maintenance. 381. In an effort to address the neglect of children and youth in society, the Department has identified child maintenance as one of its key priorities. It receives more than 200 000 new applications annually which are tragically indicative of the growing trend of child neglect in our country. 382. Parents are jointly responsible to maintain their children, yet today the responsibility of financially maintaining children often rests on the shoulders of single mothers who in many instances do not receive the financial support from the biological father. These single mothers then face laborious court applications to bring these fathers to book. 383. The Department continuously puts steps in place to improve the maintenance system. These steps contain both proactive and reactive measures. Proactive measures target the making of orders prior to default. Many orders were poorly framed and this contributes to the incidence of maintenance default. The defaulter will now pay the beneficiary directly into their bank account. 384. It was further felt that increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the use of recovery measures would ensure that there was an increased success rate in the payment of Act No. 75 of 2008 107