Big money flows of hundreds of thousands of rands in and out of a former President's bank accounts have counted against him in a court battle over maintenance for his estranged wife.

He has been ordered to pay his estranged wife R95 000 a month, plus other expenses, as interim maintenance ahead of their divorce.

The Rule 43 application was argued before KZN High Court Acting Judge Barry Skinner this week, says a TimesLIVE report.

During the hearing, the former President’s bank statements were handed in, and the judge agreed with the contentions of the estranged wife’s counsel, Advocate Sian Clarence, that they showed many large payments going into his account and that he was not just receiving his pension (of about R145 000 a month) as he claimed in his papers.

Skinner dealt at length with some of the payments and cash withdrawals ‘because in light of them I simply cannot accept the statement by (him), that his only income is the pension he receives’.

‘There may well be some explanations for these amounts, and indeed his counsel suggests that it was common knowledge that he owed a very large amount in legal fees, and these could be contributions towards his legal expenses. The difficulty with that is it’s speculation, and I cannot see on these accounts entries with the description of legal fees being paid or payments to identifiable attorneys. I can only conclude that he has not been candid about his position and that his accounts reflect the inflow of large amounts from sources at present unknown to me.’

Skinner highlighted that as at 4 March this year, he had a credit balance in his First National Bank account of more than R246 000. As at August 2020, his Absa account had a credit balance of more than R209 000.

The judge noted numerous other credit receipts. The former President receives R16 739 per month from a Sanlam product known as Glacier.

‘His counsel could not explain why this had not been disclosed and attempted to justify it by saying it was a recent receipt. This is not correct. The Absa Bank statements going back to March 2018 show a monthly credit in this amount,’ Skinner said, according to TimesLIVE.

In February this year, the FNB account reflected six payments in one day of R11 964 each.

‘There are on occasion large cash deposits, such as R60 000 (in September 2020), R100 000 (in October 2020) and a mag tape credit of R3 950 (in September 2020). While I accept it was some time ago, there was a credit payment in April 2018 (from Ntombela) of R200 000.’

The judge noted the last bond payment of R66 000 had come off in July 2018 ‘which raises a strong query regarding his contention under oath that he was still paying the bond’.

He said in October 2018, there were credits adding up to R1 158 000, which over the same months was reduced by funds used in the amount of R109 441.

‘There are large cash withdrawals on a regular basis,’ he said.

Turning to the Capitec account, he said on 7 to 10 January 2020 the account received three payments from ‘Dudu’ for R50 000 each as well as a cheque deposit of R500 000.

The former President’s estranged wife initially claimed maintenance of R170 000 but revised this to R145 000 when the matter was argued. In setting the amount at R95 000, the judge said he had disallowed medical expenses because she had access to free medical care through the Department of Defence, disallowed a monthly vehicle installment, and cut back pay for three domestic workers, a personal assistant and an au pair from R23 000 per month to R17 000.

According to TimesLIVE, he said while certain of her expenses appeared to be overstated, even taking into account her status as a former first lady, he had applied his best judgment and had taken a ‘robust view’.

He also ordered that the former President pay expenses for the couple’s minor child and contribute R50 000 towards his estranged wife’s legal costs ‘in light of the fact that this is likely to be protracted litigation’.

Full TimesLIVE report