Deadbeat dad's failure to pay child support leads to imprisonment

A FATHER who was errant in paying his court-ordered maintenance amounts was ordered to serve jail time if he did not cough up his arrears amount owed to the mother of his two minor children.

- CHEVON BOOYSEN

The mother and father, who are divorced under Sharia Law while their civil marriage still subsists, both turned to the Western Cape High Court (the father in a counter-application) but the court found in favour of the mother as the primary caregiver of the children.

The father - a repeat contempt of court offender - was sentenced to 240 hours of periodical imprisonment over weekends from 6pm on a Friday until 6am on a Monday until such time as the stipulated number of hours had been reached.

The sentence would have been suspended if he was able to pay the R16 000 maintenance arrears amount owed and if it was paid in full by on or before 5pm on 20 January and complied with the Rule 43 (divorce and maintenance) order made in the high court during May 2021.

The reasons given by acting judge Phillipa van Zyl, detailed that the father failed to pay certain expenses which included his ex-wife and children's monthly rental as well as monthly DSTV/Multichoice, Netflix, internet/Wi-Fi subscription fee, yearly TV licence costs, and the ex-wife's monthly cell phone costs.