Durban - The Pietermaritzburg High Court has ordered a former president to pay monthly maintenance of R95 000 to his soon to be ex-wife.
The polygamist father will also be liable for all private school related fees for their minor child and is expected to make an initial contribution of R50 000 within ten days towards the former first lady’s legal costs.
The former first lady filed an urgent interim maintenance application pending the finalisation of their divorce. She initially sought R170 000 for her upkeep but the amount was revised and reduced to R145 000 by her legal team.
Her list of demands included a monthly claim of R23 000 for three domestic workers, a nanny and a personal assistant. A monthly car finance instalment of R18 000 with insurance and fuel for an additional two vehicles.
She asked the court to compel the former president to include her and their child on a comprehensive medical aid benefit scheme. Over and above the medical aid, she required R 3 000 for medical expenses not covered by the scheme he chose.
Through his lawyer, advocate Zinhle Buthelezi, the former president claimed that his only source of income was the state pension which amounted to R145 000. Of that, R12 500 went to his children including the child of the former first lady, R30 000 was for his wives and R66 000 for his VBS bond. In addition, he claimed to pay between R 12 000 and R 13 000 for his Johannesburg home.
Refusing to believe him, the former first lady instructed her representative, advocate Sian Clarence, to issue subpoenas to every local bank to establish accounts operated by the former president.
The bank statements revealed that he received a number of various other amounts monthly. His FNB account had a credit balance of R246 537 while his ABSA account sat on R 209 301 as of August 2020. Statements also showed an additional monthly income of R16 739 since March 2018 from Sanlam investments.
Upon further inspection, it was discovered that large cash deposits were often made into the bank accounts including smaller regular credits of over R 2000 at the beginning of each month.
Between September and October 2020, amounts of R100 000 and R60 000 were deposited while in February 2021, six payments of R11 964,61 were also received. Another regular monthly payment was of R 4 594,33.
The court learned that in 2018, the former president also received an amount of R200 000 from a “Ntombela” and another of R1 158 683,49, but the cash was often withdrawn as fast as it came in. The statements also showed other regular large cash withdrawals and that FNB and ABSA accounts operated mainly on overdraft until July 2018 when the last instalment for his home was debited.
Delivering his judgement on Thursday, Judge Barry Skinner said he had dealt with the bank statements at length because he could not accept that the former president’s only income was from the state pension. He said while the expenses claimed, were on a fairly lavish scale, the applicant had pointed out that she is a former first lady and a public figure and was accustomed to a certain standard of living.
“In my view, the order which I make is sustainable on what I can gather of the respondent’s financial position. In the event that there are no further amounts being received from whatever these other sources may be, the respondent would of course have his rights to contend that there has been a material change in his circumstances and to apply for a reduction,” he said.
“I must, however, proceed on the information in the papers at the bank statements before me and on those, I can only conclude that the respondent has not been candid about his position and that his accounts reflect the inflow of large amounts from sources presently unknown to me. I must therefore conclude that having regard to the amounts of money available to the respondent, he is able to afford the order which I make.”
Sunday Tribune