A wealthy doctor who told his ex-wife he was no longer ‘willing to fund you lying on your couch every day’ faces two years behind bars if he doesn’t pay her R1.5m within a month.

The Cape Town specialist, who earns R3m a year and has an extensive property portfolio, reduced monthly maintenance payments from R63 000 to R10 000, telling his ex-wife to ‘go and earn your own money’.

Now, notes a Sunday Times Daily report, after two years of arguments in the Western Cape High Court, the doctor has been ordered to pay the full amount claimed by his ex-wife under their divorce agreement, plus her legal costs on a punitive scale.

The doctor agreed to pay monthly maintenance of R52 000, escalating in terms of an agreed formula, when they divorced in 2014.

Judge Patrick Gamble also imposed a 60-day prison sentence on the doctor, suspended for two years on condition he hands over R1 539 159, plus interest, immediately.

The doctor must also resume and sustain monthly maintenance payments, now totalling almost R70 000.

Gamble said the doctor ‘shamelessly attempted to bully (his ex-wife) into submission through reducing her financial lifeline, knowing full well that as an unemployed woman who is presently 62 years of age, she is entirely dependent on him for her livelihood’.

The judge added: ‘In the process, (he) has insulted and belittled (his ex-wife) and her legal representatives. His failure to adhere to the court order is ... manifestly wilful and (he) has failed to put up a case to the contrary.’

In his judgment, Gamble said: ‘(The doctor’s) true motivation for ultimately not complying with the court is not hard to find. In a WhatsApp message to (his ex-wife) on 31 May 2016 (he) told her that he did not feel like working any longer in order to maintain her.’

Full Sunday Times Daily report (subscription needed)

Judgment