A retired high court judge has been accused of contempt of court by his estranged wife after ignoring an East London magistrate’s court interim maintenance order to support her and their children, pending their divorce.
A complaint was laid at the Gonubie police station after the man allegedly failed to meet his interim maintenance obligations.
In terms of laws protecting the rights of minor children, the retired judge may not be identified.
But here’s the thing: this is a person — a man of the law — whose retirement income from his government pension fund totals R153,000 a month.
His interim maintenance order is for R27,512 — money he has failed to transfer.
The contempt of court case is being investigated.
In another recent child maintenance case, a Port Alfred businessman narrowly escaped jail in November after refusing to pay maintenance to his ex-wife for almost a year.
In that matter, the divorce agreement stipulated that the man would pay R10,000 a month in maintenance to his ex-wife and R4,000 a month for their minor child, that both of them would remain on his medical aid and that he would pay the child’s educational expenses.
The man, however, claimed he would not be able to pay her and would seek a variation of the court order so he would have to pay her only R1,000 a month.
Makhanda high court judge Murray Lowe, who was scathing about the businessman’s conduct, found him guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to 60 days in jail, suspended for two years.
He was also ordered to pay his ex-wife almost R125,000 in arrears, including interest.
These two cases have once again cast the spotlight on SA’s child maintenance process.
But in these cases, those involved are moneyed individuals.
Thousands of others applying for maintenance — in some cases just a few hundred rand even — simply do not have the resources to fight for what they are entitled to.
This newspaper is inundated via the HeraldLIVE Facebook inbox with pleas from desperate mothers seeking help with their maintenance matters.
Another page, Child Maintenance difficulties in South Africa, has more than 63,000 members — and their stories describing their plight tell a sorry tale of a system that seems to be in shambles.
It can become a cumbersome, drawn out process that dissuades mothers from even bothering to take on the battle.
Those who do, often lose hope and give up.
There has to be an easier and quicker way to force the issue of maintenance payments.
And ultimately it needs to work for all — regardless of financial status.
HeraldLIVE