I AM not writing this just for the sake of writing but out of concern.

I AM not writing this just for the sake of writing but out of concern.

Kids are being kidnapped, raped and killed on a daily basis. In most cases they are at the centre of feuds between two parties - a man and a woman.

Poor innocent souls become victims because of greed, jealousy, grudges, revenge and arrogance.

Millions of fathers are paying maintenance for offspring they did not father and, on the other hand, there are those who pay exorbitant amounts for theirs, while some have no access to the kids who are said to be theirs, just like me.

I blame the family courts, because they stand by the mothers without knowing the facts of the matter.

I challenge the media, justice system and all other stakeholders, including social workers, to take a careful look at the matter.

I have travelled this path for more than a decade and don't remember a single instance of a man being granted custody of a child or of his word being taken seriously.

Some women make two men pay for one child and there's one Soweto journalist I know who was made to pay for a child he did not father. He only realised this after 18 years.

The mother wasn't punished in any way.

There's one thing that puzzles me and that I really fail to understand. Why do I have restricted access to a child if its mine, yet I'm made to pay.

Do you really love that child if you're denying access to the man you claim to be his father?

This maintenance thing is just business and nothing else. In some instances a successful man is somehow a threat to the claimant, hence the revenge.

This practice is clearly far from over. I might have opened a can of worms but, oh, come what may.

Mandla Tshabalala, Protea Glen