Legal Articles and Guides

One wonders how many grandparents are aware of (let alone plan for) the possibility that they may have a legal duty to support their grandchildren in certain circumstances.

A parent does not in the strictest sense of the word need to be the blood and biological parent of a child to inherit if the child dies intestate. This, says a Cape Times report, was the finding of the Pretoria High Court in ordering that the mother and grandmother of a five-year-old boy inherit the millions left in his estate.

A woman – unhappy with the fact that her husband was receiving a share of her pension benefits as well as their communal home when he left her – has turned to the court for an order that he had to forfeit everything due to his conduct.

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.

A niece of one of SA’s richest businessmen is taking her former partner to court for R648 000 in child maintenance payments, says a TimesLIVE report.

A divorcing woman has asked that her estranged husband be fined R20 000 for contempt of court because, among other things, he did not fully pay for their dogs Ollie and Sadie’s needs.

A doctor who ‘abducted’ her young son from Denmark and returned to SA in September last year, ‘disappearing without trace’ some months later, has been declared a fugitive from justice, notes a Sunday Times report.

A wealthy father, who spent millions on online gambling and insisted on still driving his luxury BMW, but claims to be too ‘poor’ to pay maintenance for his two children, is a hair’s breadth from jail, according to a report in The Mercury.

For any black couple who married before 1988 in the country, chances are their union remains out of community of property, in line with apartheid’s Black Administration Act (BAA).

A 91-year-old Durban multimillionaire racehorse owner and businessman has fought off a bid by his children and brother, Robin, to appoint a curator to handle his financial affairs.

Financial hardship, too much time spent together and couples simply tiring of each other during the Covid-19 lockdown has caused a global rise in divorce applications – and SA is not exempt from this phenomenon, local family and divorce lawyers reportedly told the Saturday Star.

Fezile Mlamla – whose in-laws contested the legitimacy of her customary marriage to their son after his death – has had her marriage retrospectively confirmed as legal.

The Constitutional Court has dismissed an application which sought an answer as to whether or not a post-nuptial agreement entered into by the parties during their marriage – without court supervision – is valid and enforceable, says a TimesLIVE report.

In a victory for ‘invisible, undocumented children’, unwed fathers will soon be able to register the births of their children without the mother being present or giving consent.

As the Covid-19 lockdown bites into earnings, the legal community is reporting a significant increase in maintenance queries. However, notes a BusinessLIVE report, Advocate Muhammad Abduroaf, of legal advice consultancy Our Lawyer, says parents cannot unilaterally decide to reduce maintenance, and getting a court to revise your maintenance order may not be possible until after the lockdown.