Felicity Guest
Felicity transforms her decades of lived experience navigating the family court system into action. For over ten years, Felicity has guided and supported parents applying for child maintenance and protection orders. Her trauma-informed, victim-centric approach to corporate training is invaluable to companies intent on preventing abuse in the workplace and supporting employees experiencing family violence.
Felicity advocates for systemic change to laws and policies with the aim of economically uplifting vulnerable South Africans, particularly women and children, in the pursuit of gender equality.
Felicity’s Advocacy Journey
My journey began in 2010, when I asked for a divorce. I believed I was still in negotiations until I received an email with a final divorce decree. This fraudulent decree was eventually set aside in August 2011, and my legitimate divorce was finalised on my birthday in August 2012. But the battle did not end there.
I entered the maintenance system, and I’ve been navigating it ever since.
In 2011, after being told a fraudulent divorce was merely a “civil matter,” I went to the Pretoria North High Court. It was only after I threatened to chain myself to the fence that I secured a meeting with the then Deputy Judge President. That day, I made a promise: I would become a voice for women who are denied access to justice.
In 2014, out of frustration and desperation, I applied for a protection order for economic abuse to protect my adult neurodiverse child, who will need lifelong care. The experience exposed me to the devastating impacts of systemic ignorance and failures; harms that extend far beyond the immediate, trapping mothers and children in cycles of poverty and abuse.
In July 2014, I founded Child Maintenance Difficulties in South Africa (CMDSA). Through this work, I began to see the same systemic failures repeat across race, culture, religion, and socio-economic divide. Failures that harm not only individuals but also workplaces and society at large.
I came to understand that economic abuse is a violent tool. It is one of the main drivers of gender inequality, poverty, and gender-based violence in South Africa. Although our country has progressive legislation, its implementation and protection remain inadequate. The covert, non-physical forms of abuse — like economic and coercive control — are overlooked, leaving women and children especially vulnerable.
Working mothers, particularly single mothers, are often forced to choose between keeping their jobs and pursuing justice because the maintenance system drags on for years without resolution. This makes them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse in the workplace, compounding the injustice.
Felicity's work has one clear mission: