Maintenance is the obligation to provide another person, for example a minor, with housing, food, clothing, education, and medical care.
This legal duty to maintain is called ‘the duty to maintain’ or ‘the duty to support’.
Types of Maintenance:
Child maintenance
Spousal maintenance
Cross border maintenance
In South Africa, it is common to find that when a couple gets divorced there is generally one spouse that is in a better financially position, than the other spouse.
Maybe they’ve been working, and the other spouse is a homemaker, or the other spouse has been taking care of children. What happens to the maintenance in that situation?
In south African law, a court has the power to issue a maintenance order. This means that the court can compel one spouse to maintain the other spouse and maintain the children.
As a result, it is both parents’ responsibility to provide for their children’s maintenance, furthermore both parents have a duty of support, and this duty of support lasts until the age of 18. That’s the legal age of majority.
Considering if you have already been divorced, how would maintenance work?
Maintenance Courts are still available for assistance, generally located at your nearest Magistrate’s Court.
In all cases in which maintenance must be paid, whether to a spouse, former spouse, or children – the maintenance court can help.
If you can’t afford a lawyer, oftentimes you can have a front desk at the court or even Legal Aid be able to assist you for free.
Documents needed to lodge a maintenance claim:
- The Identity document
- Birth certificate of the child
- Bank statements of both the parents
- list of the expenses of the child
- list of expenses of both the parents
- Proof of applicant’s income and expenditure
- Name and surname of parent/person responsible for the payment of maintenance money
- Physical/work address of the parent/person responsible for the payment of maintenance money if available
- Copy of bank statement
- Proof of residence/affidavit
The maintenance clerk wil assist you in completing the forms and refer your application to the Maintenance Officer for final assessment of your documents.
After assessment the registration of application and reference number will be issued.
