The plan to have maintenance defaulters blacklisted has passed one legal hurdle.

On Tuesday‚ Parliament’s portfolio committee on justice and correctional services voted for the adoption of the Maintenance Amendment Bill.

Two clauses that have led to debate in the committee dealt with the possible blacklisting of maintenance defaulters and the question of who should foot the bill when someone brings a maintenance application.

These issues have been addressed by amendments and the majority of the committee on Tuesday voted in favour of the bill.

Two Democratic Alliance (DA) members abstained from the vote.

Before the bill was put to a vote‚ committee members engaged in a debate on the issue of blacklisting of maintenance defaulters.

Bongani Bongo‚ of the African National Congress (ANC)‚ said that it was wrong of the DA to mobilise a march on blacklsiting credit defaulters while it is still being discussed by the committee.

DA member Werner Swart responded: “I don’t know if the honourable Bongo is mischievous…let me say this…we welcome the U-turn made by the ANC on this issue.”

Previously‚ ANC committee members were opposed to blacklisting of maintenance defaulters as they believed it would do more harm than good.

All committee members called for the state to foot the bill of applications for maintenance.

The bill‚ as it was adopted by the committee‚ allows the court to get the details of the defaulter and either order that the state pay the costs or that the costs be recovered from the defaulter at a later stage.

The maintenance officer or clerk must also provide the maintenance order to businesses that deal with credit ratings.

The bill will now go to the National Assembly and then the National Council of Provinces for approval‚ with the president having the final say on whether it will be signed into law.