When maintenance goes unpaid, the court can act

If a parent stops paying court-ordered maintenance, you are not without recourse. A recent High Court judgment shows how seriously the courts treat a parent who can pay but chooses not to.

The case in short

In MM v MF [2025] ZAGPJHC 857, the parents were involved in divorce proceedings. The High Court had made an interim maintenance order under Rule 43. It required the father to pay a monthly cash amount, educational expenses and medical aid premiums. The mother said he had failed to comply and owed roughly R700 000 in unpaid maintenance and related expenses.

What the father argued

The father admitted that he had not complied in full. He said he could not afford to and had brought an application in the Maintenance Court to reduce his maintenance obligations.

What the court decided

A person cannot be held in contempt if they genuinely cannot afford to comply. The difficulty for the father was the evidence. The mother showed that he continued to receive payments linked to various businesses and had bought event tickets and international airline tickets. He could not meaningfully dispute this or prove that he genuinely lacked the means to pay.

The court found that the father had not raised a reasonable doubt about his ability to pay and that his non-compliance was deliberate and in bad faith (mala fide). It declared him to be in contempt of court and imposed a suspended 30-day prison sentence, unless he complied within three ordinary days of the order.

The consequences did not end there. The Registrar was directed to give the father's details to the credit bureaus under section 31(4) of the Maintenance Act 99 of 1998. His own application to reduce his maintenance was suspended until the divorce is finalised. He was also ordered to pay the mother's legal costs on the punitive attorney-and-client scale, including counsel's fees.

What this means for you

"I cannot afford it" must be proved, not simply stated. Where a parent has the means and still refuses to pay, the courts have real powers, from imprisonment to credit blacklisting and a punitive costs order. If you are owed maintenance, keep a clear record of what is due and of any spending that shows the other parent can in fact pay.