A Western Cape judge is dismayed by the endless fighting over maintenance between parties who drag out civil divorce proceedings to the point of settling only when they are broke.

News24 reports that Judge Babalwa Mantame urged parties in acrimonious divorces, and their lawyers, not to abuse court processes to look for more money or to keep the pre-divorce maintenance money tap flowing.

She said this seems to stop only when the parties run out of money... then they settle.

Mantame heard one such case recently and, in her judgment handed down on 20 June, said the trend of parties with ‘substantial estates’ dragging things out must change.

‘In most circumstances, the parties are in and out of court raising unnecessary or inconsequential legal issues against each other, which ultimately amount to nothing,’ she wrote.

She added that by the time a divorce dispute like this goes to trial, the parties don't even have money to pay for a lawyer. She said the point of applications relating to maintenance is to provide fast interim relief to an applicant who finds that they are in a desperate financial or living position without the assistance of their spouse in the short term.

However, parties ‘bend over backwards’ to frustrate each other while they poke around looking for hidden money and assets. 

The matter that set Mantame off involved a couple who were already divorced under Islamic law in 2019 but couldn't agree on terms to finalise their civil divorce.

Judge Gayaat Salie in August 2020 ordered that the husband pay R20 000 a month in maintenance, plus expenses, until the civil divorce was finalised. A year later, the husband applied for the order to be varied, saying he could not keep up.

However, the case took almost two years to be heard, reports News24.

In the meantime, his wife was treated for cancer and could not work for a while. She asked the court to find her husband in contempt of court for underpaying on the R20 000 maintenance he was committed to until their civil divorce was finalised. 

The husband said the maintenance and the additional expenses like school fees, medical bills, and car and house maintenance were depleting his finances.

He pleaded for the amount to be reduced to R10 000. His maintenance dropped to R15 000 a month. The judge said he did not miss the payments out of bad intentions, he just could not afford it. As a result, he was not found in contempt of court.

Mantane said she was not awarding costs because of the conduct of the parties towards each other, and the lack of interest in finalising the civil divorce.

Full News24 report