Psychiatric assessment for dad in maintenance battle

A Johannesburg father who earns R147,000 a month says he can’t afford to pay R15,000 monthly maintenance for his two sons. Now he has been ordered by the court to go for a psychiatric evaluation to assess if, or to what extent, he suffers from a gambling addiction.

This is the aftermath of a fight to get him to paymore than R500,000 owed in maintenance for his two young sons — and his attempts to get out of it.

His ex-wife turned to the court to have him held in contempt of maintenance, and in September judge Frank Snyckers, in the high court in Johannesburg, ruled that he pay what he owes or risk jail.

But his lawyer said despite earning R147,000 a month, her client cannot afford to pay the combined maintenance of R15,000, nor the nearly R538,000 he owes in arrears.

The parents’ identity cannot be revealed to protect their children, aged six and nine.

The saga began when the couple divorced in 2017. The settlement agreement was that the father pay maintenance and would be allowed regulated contact with his children.

He lost his job at an auditing firm and began defaulting on maintenance at the end of 2017. His ex-wife applied for an emoluments attachment order (a debt collection process), which prompted him to pay the amount in arrears of R63,000 in February 2018.

But he did not pay maintenance after that, besides one payment in August. He acknowledged owing just under R500,000.

According to court papers, in the divorce he received more than R1m from the sale of their home and was paid R3.2m pretax from a retirement policy.

When the matter came to court on September 4, he was employed again, earning more than R147,000 and clearing R83,000 a month. His employer adds an extra R10,000 to his retirement fund.

He claimed his monthly earnings are flattened by debt, which includes the purchase of a BMW costing him R10,000 a month and R1,900 on insurance.

In the report, the judge noted that the man didn’t dispute continuing to spend “considerable amounts of money on online gambling and some on online trading”, amounting to millions between 2012 and 2015.

In the past five months he spent R70,000 on these hobbies. The judge said a further R10,000 a month in cash withdrawals was unaccounted for.

In his answering papers, the man brought proceedings for a reduction in maintenance, seeking to pay R1,000 a month per child. He later changed the sum to R2,500 per child.

The judge ruled that in order to avoid jail he must submit a psychiatric evaluation report to see if, or to what extent, he suffers from a gambling addiction.

He was also ordered to make monthly instalments of R30,000 until the arrears are paid and his ex-wife could approach the court to have him jailed if he does not meet those requirements.

He paid his first instalment on October 1. Attorney Roslyn Lerena, speaking on behalf of the father, said they would appeal against the judgment.

“It’s been hard as he was unemployed and as such he has approached the maintenance court to have a financial inquiry into his affordability wherein both parties’ income and expenditure will be assessed.

“The children are at private schools and the expenses are high and need to be assessed.”