Court orders businessman to fund estranged wife’s luxury lifestyle
A Cape Town woman involved in a divorce battle has secured a high court order compelling her estranged husband to continue funding the luxury lifestyle she and their children enjoyed during their marriage.
The Western Cape High Court ordered the businessman to pay about R90 000 a month in maintenance and household support, including private school fees, medical aid, domestic worker costs and other expenses for his estranged wife and their two children.
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Acting Judge Adrian Montzinger said the maintenance order would help preserve the standard of living the family enjoyed before the marriage broke down.
The couple married in Namibia in 2014 before relocating to Johannesburg in 2016.
Following their separation in late 2023, the woman remained in South Africa with the children, while the businessman returned to Windhoek, where he now lives with his current partner.
The court heard that the woman had never worked during the marriage and had relied on her husband as the family’s primary source of financial support.
She later moved with the children to Cape Town, where they enrolled at a private school and rented a home in an affluent southern suburb.
According to court papers, the businessman initially agreed to continue paying for the children’s schooling, medical aid, accommodation and monthly maintenance after the separation.
However, the woman argued that the arrangement was no longer sufficient to maintain the lifestyle they had become accustomed to.
The court heard that she had been relying on savings and funds from a shared property trust to cover rent and living expenses while the divorce proceedings continued.
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A R250 000 payout from the trust was used for a deposit and rent on the Cape Town property, while she also had personal savings of about R225 000.
Montzinger found that the woman should not be forced to exhaust her savings and capital assets while her husband still had the financial means to support the family.
The court ordered the man to pay R35 000 a month towards rent, R20 000 in personal maintenance for the woman and R17 500 per child each month.
He must also cover all educational expenses, including school fees, uniforms, stationery and tours, as well as medical aid, healthcare costs and the salary of the family’s live-in domestic worker.
He was also ordered to contribute R175 000 towards the woman’s legal costs.
