Over the years, Moja Love has been broadcasting reality shows of people’s struggles, which glued many eyes to the screen. And they probably watch with popcorn in one hand and X opened on the other, joining online conversations and hashtags that make certain episodes trend. One such show is Papgeld, in which deadbeat fathers are given the unwelcomed spotlight as they are asked – while being chased – why they refuse to pay maintenance. These men, sadly, make up the vast number of a 2018 finding revealed by Statistics South Africa, which states that 31,7% of black children stay with their biological fathers compared with 51,3% of coloured, 86,1% of Indian or Asian, and 80,2% of white children.
A social pandemic
The statistics seem to present the issue of absent fathers as another social pandemic that needs to be tackled legally, psychologically, and financially. These sentiments are shared by *Nonkululeko Dlamini (36) from the East Rand, who expresses her exhaustion from chasing after her ex-partner to be present in their eight-year-old’s life. “My ex-boyfriend was a great partner until I fell pregnant. At 28, I felt ready to settle down and start a family, and we were starting that conversation. Maybe he entertained the topic to give me false hope. Shortly after discovering my pregnancy, I went to his family ukuyo veza isisu (to announce my pregnancy), and he wasn’t the same person anymore. I
