Legal Eye for the Layperson

Heads up: in case you have not noticed, the Maintenance Act 1998 has undergone a magnificent revamp . At least someone has heard our cries! As of  9 September 2015 , the below amendments became law. It is not a complete makeover but it is at least a rather good start. Here is a brief summary of its benefits: A: INTERIM MAINTENANCE ORDERS The Maintenance Act currently makes no provision for  interim  Orders i.e. Maintenance Orders which are payable whilst the matter is still in Court and before final judgment is made by a Magistrate. This became a royal pain in the backside because often the primary caregivers fight tooth and nail to get Maintenance out of the other party. Now, even if that party chooses to put up a barricade of excuses as to why he / she / they cannot pay the requested Maintenance, at least your little ones will be looked after in between. Previously, under the repealed Act, interim Orders were permissible. For some unknown and bizarre reas...

By its very nature, the concept of maintenance should be quite easy to ascertain and acquire in law. A parent of a child is (especially, for the purposes of law, financially ) duty-bound and legally bound to support his or her child, whether natural or adopted parent. In a similar fashion, the law has created a set of reciprocal obligations between parents and children: children are equally bound to support their parents as parents are to support their children. In South Africa, especially because of,  inter alia , the high birth rare, the law has been geared with a fool-proof Maintenance Act , Regulations, and Court. This is primarily because the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa ("the Constitution") is the highest law in the land and therefore equality before the law is an entrenched value in respect of all law created and regulating the country. However, the Maintenance system, particularly in Gauteng, is a system which is now essentially defunct: it ...