Supreme Court of Appeal Rules Parents Can Claim Maintenance on Behalf of Adult Dependent Children

• The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled that parents can claim maintenance for adult dependent children from partners
• The ruling follows a woman’s appeal after the high court found that she could not claim maintenance of her adult children
• The judgement stated that both divorced parents have the responsibility to provide for their children

BLOEMFONTEIN - A judgement from the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) found that it often takes time for young adults to obtain employment, and therefore parents can claim maintenance from partners they are separated from to support them.

The SCA acting Judge Pieter Meyer and four others found that mothers often carry the financial burden of adult children after divorce proceedings on Thursday, 21 July. The ruling follows an Eastern Cape woman’s appeal after the province’s high court found that she could not claim maintenance of her adult children, who were dependent on her.

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The judgement that referred to the woman as Mrs Z and her partner as Mr Z stated that the high court ruled in favour of Mr Z after he filed a special plea. The partner argued that his children could ask for maintenance directly and that their mother had no legal grounds to claim for them.

According to News24, the judgement stated that both parents have the responsibility to provide for their children when a marriage ends in divorce.

South Africans weigh in on the Supreme Court of Appeal’s ruling:

@trent_ZA wrote:

“As silly as it can get, destroying societies.”

@PatrickNicholl3 commented:

“So what makes an adult child a dependent “Staying At Home And Claiming that they can’t get job” because this will cost the country Billions in handouts and another Rate Hike.”

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Lorinda Kernekamp posted:

“They can’t even enforce maintenance for minors from a defaulting parent. Really stupid that now they wasting time on adult children, who should be able to support themselves, even whilst studying, it hasn’t killed anyone to get a part-time job.”

Rose Gita Nhlongo added:

“No offence to most of my fellow African people, however, this is a norm in our communities. It just doesn’t come with all the legal cr*p but our grandparents, and parents support grown men and women. Sadly some are just unemployed but there are those blood-sacking ones who just don’t even want to work.”

Turkish court says Erdogan had right to annul women’s treaty

In a related matter, Briefly News also reported Turkey’s top court on Tuesday ruled that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had the right to pull his country out of a European convention against gender-based violence.

Rights groups and Western governments voiced shock and outrage when Erdogan cancelled Turkey’s membership of the Istanbul Convention in an overnight decree last year.

Source: Briefly News