It’s appalling that a parent can watch their own child suffer in penury

It’s a sad, but quite commonplace, reality that the break-up of a marriage can bring toxic feelings to the surface. And nowhere is that more evident than in the fighting between former spouses over maintenance and custody of their children.

When it comes to maintenance, there are many deadbeat dads out there who, despite agreeing to pay maintenance for their former wives – and more importantly, their children – default.

In some cases, that results in the man’s family (and most of the maintenance bilkers are men) being cast into poverty.

That’s why it is fitting that one such ducking and diving father will be going to jail for four and a half years after the High Court in Johannesburg confirmed his sentence.

It is understood to be the first time in South Africa that a maintenance defaulter has been jailed. This was not a case where the man had himself suddenly ended up on the skids – by all accounts he was wealthy but refused to pay more than R1 million over four years to his ex-wife and their son.

It is beyond appalling that a parent can watch their own offspring suffer in penury, simply because they want to exact revenge on their former spouse.