Pretoria - Two siblings asked the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to stop their big-spending mother from wasting her late husband’s money on frivolous hobbies and other unnecessary items.
The elderly woman’s children said she also fell for all kind of scams as she simply forked out money or got into debt to cater for her needs.
Judge Johan Louw declared her a prodigal; person unable to manage her finances. A curator was appointed by the court to manage her affairs on her behalf.
Her daughter said in papers before court that their father had died in 2007. He always provided his wife with “everything her heart desired”.
The widow moved to a townhouse in the Free State soon afterwards, where the spending started.
The daughter said that her mother, for instance, had a top-of-the-range sewing machine, which she exchanged for an even more expensive one.
When she had an accident in her luxury car, she decided to buy a top-of-the-range new car.
According to the daughter, her mother had the bad habit of starting new hobbies for which she bought everything needed, but never finished any project.
For example, she decided to take oil painting lessons and bought the paint at R250 a tube - in all colours. She also bought numerous canvasses, but never went for the lessons.
The mother subsequently relocated from the Free State to Joburg, but left her children with the relocating bill.
She was not happy there and once again moved - to North West - for which her children had to pay. The daughter said she spent R100 000 in a very short time buying odds and ends she did not need.
The mother had also been exposed to scams, as she did not have the ability to say no to people. For instance, she invited fumigators to her home to give her a quotation. They convinced her to pay upfront for the work to be done, which she did. They never pitched to do the work, and later broke into the house and stole almost everything in it.
“My mother then got it into her head that she wanted to do a counselling course. She enrolled, and the person there told her she needed a new laptop. She bought a top-of-the-range laptop. Needless to say she never did the course and is sitting with an overpriced laptop that she can hardly use. To date she has only sent one email, which she needed assistance to do.”
The daughter said her mother’s spending had recently escalated to new heights. She and her brother then decided to manage their mother’s finances, but this did not put the woman off.
She simply incurred debt and obtained a credit card.
She opened clothing accounts and spent the maximum amount she could, only to let her children foot the bill once they found out about the accounts.
The daughter said she and her brother had no option but to ask the court to step in, as her mother was recently into quilting, for which she bought herself the top of the range equipment, but she abandoned this, too.
She then decided she wanted a new tumble dryer, and bought the most expensive one on the market.
The daughter said she and her brother were then saddled with the bill.
They said that the only way out was an order that she may not incur any debts or handle her own financial affairs.