The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has ordered a man to pay a monthly maintenance bill of more than R23 000 to his estranged wife and two children after he ‘strategically’ reduced his contributions.

The parties were in the process of getting divorced after being married for 24 years, notes a News24 report, The father entered into an extra-marital affair with a woman he now lives with.

He moved out of their shared home on 11 January 2020.

The man had been the primary breadwinner and continued to maintain his estranged wife and their sons after leaving the common home. The court said the man provided no explanation for the reduction in contributions and did not claim he did not have the financial means to maintain his estranged partner and children as he did previously.

According to court papers, since the start of divorce proceedings, the man had reduced his contributions and threatened to ensure the woman walked out of the divorce with nothing.

The woman said her health had deteriorated significantly since the separation, and in January 2020, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and although she is now in remission after treatment she continues to suffer from depression.

Her husband has paid R20 000 a month towards maintenance since February 2020. She said she used the money for food, groceries, cleaning materials, clothes, and other incidental expenses. However, from May 2020, the man abruptly reduced this to R10 000 a month and informed her he was paying the sons directly an amount of R5 000 each since they were no longer minors.

In May 2020, the man stopped paying her fuel bill, DSTV account, and her domestic worker's salary.

In August 2021, he stopped paying her cellphone bill; and in March 2022, he stopped paying the one son's ‘maintenance money’.

The court noted the woman had filed a financial disclosure form (FDF) and stated she lived on the poverty line because she could not pay for her everyday expenses.

Her monthly expenses, excluding the money she spent on their two children, amounted to R39 047. As he declared in his first FDF, the total value of the man's assets amounted to more than R11m.

The man denied the allegations, arguing he paid maintenance of close to R47 000 amonth and had always been willing to maintain the woman reasonably, notes News24. 

The court said the man was evasive regarding the question of whether he could or could not afford the amounts she demanded and was silent regarding his spending patterns, as alleged by the woman.

It ordered him to pay maintenance of R23 500 a month on or before the first day of the month. He was ordered to contribute to the woman's legal fees of R650 000, payable in instalments of R100 000 per month.

He was also ordered to pay the costs of the application.

‘The applicant is entitled to be maintained in the same standard of living that she enjoyed during the subsistence of the parties' marriage, subject that the respondent can afford to keep them in that standard of living. It is not expected of her to reduce her standard of living just because the respondent refuses to pay her proper maintenance,’ the court said.

Full News24 report