A divorcing husband told the court that he is now totally cash-strapped following divorce proceedings which had lasted for the past 12 years - and are still ongoing - and which had cost the parties R10million in legal fees so far.
A Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg judge commented that the court various luxurious expenses in the wife’s monthly schedule, which include the cost of a personal trainer at R2 900.00, hairdressing at R2 300.00, beautician treatments at R1 100 00, magazines and books at R350 00 and perfumes and cosmetics at R3 000 00.
She further needs R3 600.00 a month to eat at restaurants with a further R1 100.00 for entertainment and a monthly contribution of R3 870 00 for breakaways.
The husband turned to court to have the earlier order of the interim maintenance amount - pending the final divorce - reduced.
The wife, on the other hand, launched a counter application where she asked for the amount to be increased. She claimed that she currently had a shortfall each month of approximately R44 000.00.
The court said it seemed that she sought to live a lifestyle of a time long passed - “a time when the applicant (husband) had not been dispossessed of his biggest assets and the parties had not spent twelve years litigating and well over R10m in legal fees - this all over a marriage which, comparatively speaking, did not last that long.”
“The court accepts that the parties may have enjoyed, at worst, a comfortable lifestyle during the course of the marriage. However, the separation of the parties occurred well over a decade ago and circumstances appear decidedly different to those which are said to have existed pre-2012 (before their separation),” Acting Judge Leigh de Souza-Spagnoletti said.
She added that the husband, by all accounts, appeared to be living a comparatively sparse and humble existence. “The respondent and minor child are at this stage going to have to tighten their belts too,” she said.
To emphasise the gravity of the matter of the acrimonious divorce dragging on, the judge commented that the couple’s only child was five when the divorce summons was issued. She has just turned 17.
“She has spent almost her entire childhood within the stress, tension and animosity of high-conflict divorce proceedings.”
The husband, in asking to pay a reduced amount of interim maintenance, said he had to sell a lot of his assets in order to maintain his wife and child and to keep up with his legal fees.
He said he was in fact financially so down and out that he is now representing himself in these legal proceedings. He also had to move from their Houghton home to an R11 000 a-month rental apartment.
While the wife and child are still living in Houghton, he said he had to sell this property and offered to pay for similar accommodation for them as his own. But the wife will accept nothing less than rented accommodation costing at least R30 000 a month, as well as new fixtures and furniture.
Although the court was told that she owed millions in legal fees, and while her husband is facing the court himself, she still has the services of a senior attorney and a senior advocate. Apart from asking for an increase in maintenance, she also wants her husband to contribute towards her legal fees.
Judge de Souza-Spagnoletti said the trial in the divorce action is currently, with no end in sight after 17 days of evidence. “With the manner in which this divorce has played out, the probability exists that by the time it is finalized, there will simply be nothing left to fight over.”
While the husband said he is in dire financial straits and that there had been a material change in his circumstances since the first maintenance order against him was issued in 2012, the wife claimed that “he is a man of extensive means”.
Another judge earlier ordered that the husband also had to contribute R3m towards his wife’s legal fees.
But the husband now said that he is in no financial position to settle the R3m order and had no liquid assets nor any ability to access such enormous sums of money.
The judge said it was recognised by the court that the husband was not living the life of a king.
She ordered that he pay R28 000 a month in maintenance, pending the divorce and up to R18 000 a month for new accommodation for her. The court said that if she chose to move into a more expensive home, she had to fork out the difference herself.