- The High Court has ordered a Namibian husband to pay more than R90,000 a month in interim maintenance to his estranged wife and children.
- The judge said the husband cannot force his wife to use her own savings or trust funds to get by during the divorce process.
- The court also ordered the husband to contribute R175,000 towards the wife’s legal costs in the ongoing divorce proceedings.
The High Court in the Western Cape has told a Namibian businessman to keep supporting his estranged wife and their two daughters. The court said the family should be able to keep living in a way similar to how they did during the marriage.
The court looked at a Rule 43 application from the wife. She wanted interim maintenance, rental payments, child support and help with legal costs while the divorce continues, which includes disputes about assets, which country’s law applies and whether the husband’s estate should be shared.
Acting Judge A Montzinger said the husband must pay R35,000 a month for the family’s rental home in Constantia, R20,000 in maintenance for the wife, and R17,500 a month for each child. He also has to keep paying school fees, medical aid and the salary of the family’s live-in helper.
The couple married in Namibia in 2014 and later moved to Johannesburg. They separated in 2023. The wife moved with the children to Cape Town in 2024. The husband went back to Windhoek and now lives there with his new partner.
The wife told the court she had never worked during the marriage and depended almost completely on her husband for money. She said the maintenance he had been paying was no longer enough to keep the family living as they used to during the marriage.
Judge Montzinger said the court did not need to settle all the parties’ rights now. For now, it was about making a fair temporary arrangement until the divorce trial.
The judgment said the duty to support a spouse does not end just because someone hopes the other person will become financially independent by a certain date.
Court rejects claim that wife must use her own savings
A key disagreement was whether the wife should pay for her own accommodation using family trust money and her personal savings.
The husband said he should not have to keep paying rent because the wife had about R250,000 in the Miroca SA Trust and another R225,000 in savings. Judge Montzinger disagreed with that argument.
The court said these arguments basically meant the wife would have to use up her own savings and investments. The judge said making the wife use her trust money or savings would let the husband dodge his legal duty to support her.
The judgment said the wife’s own savings of about R225,000 are quite small compared to the lifestyle the couple enjoyed during the marriage, and should not be used for maintenance if the husband can afford to pay.
The court noted the family lived very comfortably during the marriage. They stayed in an upmarket estate, had domestic workers, travelled abroad and sent their children to private schools. Judge Montzinger said what matters is that their lifestyle was well above ordinary middle-class living.
Legal fight over multimillion rand estate still ahead
The divorce is expected to involve big disputes about whether South African or Namibian law should apply to the couple’s assets.
The wife wants half of her husband’s estate, using Section 7(3) of the Divorce Act and a key Constitutional Court judgment. The husband says this kind of claim is not possible under Namibian law or their antenuptial contract.
Judge Montzinger said those issues would be decided during the divorce trial, not now in the interim maintenance application. The court said the upcoming legal fight would likely be complicated and expensive, especially since most of the husband’s assets are said to be in Namibia.
The judgment said the wife must not be left unable to properly pursue her claim because she has less money than her husband. The main principle is that both sides should be able to fight fairly in court.
In the end, the court gave the wife R50,000 for past legal costs and another R125,000 for future legal costs.
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