A father who sent threatening messages to his estranged wife, despite her obtaining an interdict against him, must go to jail, a KZN High Court (Durban) judge has ruled.

TimesLIVE reports that the parties cannot be named because they are in the throes of a divorce and a bitter battle over access to their 12-year-old daughter.

Acting Judge Louis Barnard noted that the mother is a SA citizen and the father Canadian, although he lives in the UAE.

She initiated divorce proceedings in 2018 which resulted in a number of applications involving the parties' parental rights and responsibilities. This apparently triggered him to send her a host of abusive and threatening messages.

In September 2021, an order was granted by consent, prohibiting him from sending her any text messages, WhatsApp messages, emails or voice messages of an abusive or threatening nature.

The events which gave rise to the interdict were a ‘barrage of texts’ in which he threatened to harm his estranged wife and her family and accused them of being ‘paedophiles’.

In his response, he did not deny that he sent the messages and said he never intended to harm anyone.

His threats, he said, ‘emanated from a deep sense of desperation, anguish and outrage’.

Barnard said the interdict seemed to have little effect. ‘Within two months he was at it again when he sent a series of similar abusive, threatening and insulting texts,’ he said.

After a Rule 43 application, he was ordered to pay about R480 000 in maintenance and for medical aid, arrear school fees and towards legal costs. This, according to the wife, he completely ignored.

The father claimed that the court had no jurisdiction over him because he lived in the UAE and the court orders against him were ‘nullities’.

But Barnard said he had ‘entered the fray’ and had actively participated in all the court proceedings.

He could not now claim that the courts had no jurisdiction over him. He had consented to the initial interdict and had then ‘flagrantly breached it’.

TimesLIVE notes that he said contempt had been established ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’.

Barnard said the suspended sentence order was meant to give the father a chance to mend his ways.

‘Yes, he chose to show a total disregard and further contempt to that opportunity given to him. Such conduct cannot be tolerated,’ Barnard said, ordering that he spend 30 days at Westville Prison and that he pay punitive costs in the matter. 

TimesLIVE notes that if he does not successfully appeal the order, the man will be arrested should he ever return to SA to have access to his daughter.

Full TimesLIVE report