MAINTENANCE ACT (as amended, as at 01-01-2005) (d) a maintenance order registered or confirmed under the Maintenance Orders (Facilities for Enforcement) Act [Chapter 5:10]; (e) a maintenance order made in terms of subsection (3) of section 5 of the Guardianship of Minors Act [Chapter 5:08]. (6) In any prosecution for a contravention of this section— (a) a certificate alleging the essential details of an order for the payment of maintenance shall, if purporting to have been signed by a person describing himself as the registrar of the High Court, or a clerk of a maintenance court where the order is for the time being registered in terms of section eighteen, be received in any court on production by the prosecutor as prima facie proof of the facts therein stated; (b) where payment in terms of an order for the payment of maintenance must be made through the clerk of a maintenance court, a certificate alleging the fact of default of any such payment shall, if purporting to have been signed by a person describing himself as a clerk of the maintenance court, be received in any court on production by the prosecutor as prima facie proof of the facts therein stated; (c) whenever it is necessary to establish the means of a person, a sworn statement purporting to be made by the employer or former employer of such person giving particulars of the person’s earnings and of any deductions therefrom shall be received in any court on production by the prosecutor as prima facie proof of the facts therein stated. 24 Criminal offence for failing to comply with direction Any person who fails to comply with any direction made against him shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level four or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding three months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.7 25 Release from imprisonment on payment of arrears (1) Where a person who has been imprisoned in respect of a conviction by a magistrates court for an offence which involves the failure to comply with an order for the payment of maintenance pays all arrears of maintenance outstanding or makes arrangements for the payment of all such arrears, he may make application in writing to a magistrate of the court which convicted him for his release from prison stating that all such arrears have been paid or, as the case may be, the details of the arrangements made for the payment of all such arrears. (2) Upon an application being made to him in terms of subsection (1), the magistrate shall cause a copy thereof and notice of the date on which he proposes to inquire into the matter of the application to be given to the public prosecutor. (3) On the date fixed for the determination of the application the magistrate shall, by order under his hand, direct that the applicant be brought before him and, after affording the applicant and the public prosecutor an opportunity of being heard and upon being satisfied that— (a) all arrears of maintenance have been paid or, as the case may be, arrangements, which in the opinion of the magistrate are adequate, have been made for the payment of all such arrears; and (b) the applicant bona fide intends to make further payments in terms of the order requiring him to pay maintenance; and (c) it is desirable in the circumstances to do so; may order the release of the applicant from the imprisonment imposed upon him in respect of the offence referred to in subsection (1) and shall suspend, for a period not exceeding three years, the remainder of the sentence of imprisonment imposed upon the applicant in respect of that offence on condition that the applicant makes future payments in terms of the order. (4) Any person who is aggrieved by the refusal of a magistrate to make an order of release from imprisonment in terms of subsection (2) may appeal against such refusal to the High Court, and the Magis7 Section amended by s. 4 of Act 22/2001. 11