A senior advocate (79), ordered to pay his wife R11.1m after a six-year divorce battle, has had the amount reduced to R4.4m on appeal, says a TimesLIVE report. SCA Judges Stevan Majiedt and Owen Rogers said the advocate was argumentative‚ arrogant‚ obdurate‚ mendacious‚ evasive and tendentious.

They rejected the advocate’s argument that Acting Judge Leslie Weinkove had embarked on ‘a calculated crusade of character assassination’ in his 2016 judgment in the Western Cape High Court‚ and dismissed an allegation of bias. ‘While (Weinkove) regrettably made numerous improper remarks‚ sometimes entailing unnecessary personal comments about the advocate‚ we disagree with the contention that he was patently biased‚’ Majiedt and Rogers said in their judgment.

The appeal judges agreed with Weinkove that the clause in the ante-nuptial contract waiving her claim to maintenance was unenforceable and unconstitutional‚ before they embarked on a lengthy appraisal of the advocate’s complex estate.

‘The stark reality is that we will never be able to establish the exact value‚’ they said. But they concluded that it was worth R8.9m and awarded the wife half‚ to be paid by 1 December. They also reversed Weinkove’s order that the advocate should transfer half of their R6m matrimonial home to her‚ buy her an upmarket car every six years and pay her maintenance of R30 000 a month.

Saying that the wife‚ now 53‚ should be able to earn at least R20 000 a month‚ they reduced maintenance payments to R8 500 a month from September 2018. They acknowledged that the advocate would have to sell the home – now entirely his in terms of their judgment – and probably a farm to meet his financial commitments‚ which included his wife’s costs of R2m in the High Court divorce battle.

Full TimesLIVE report

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