Your question
In a matter of child maintenance requested by the wife, how can the father negotiate the amount of maintenance and what is the process of establishing maintenance
### Negotiating the amount
The supplied sources do not prescribe a specific private negotiation procedure or formula for calculating child maintenance. The father may therefore place his proposed amount and relevant circumstances before the maintenance court, but the court controls the final amount and may make an order against the person proved legally liable to maintain the child. 2
Both parents are primarily responsible for maintaining the child. 6 In divorce or annulment proceedings, either spouse may apply for child maintenance, and the court may order one spouse to pay periodic sums that it considers appropriate. 3
The father should ensure that any agreed or proposed arrangement clearly addresses the amount, payment periods, payment dates, recipient or institution, and method of payment, because these matters must be specified in a maintenance order. 2
### Process for establishing maintenance
If the application is made in divorce or annulment proceedings, either spouse may apply for a child maintenance order, including an interim order pending determination of the application. The court may order periodic payments, a lump sum instead of periodic payments, or other appropriate terms and conditions. 3
Under the Maintenance Act, where no maintenance order is in force, the maintenance court may make an order against the person proved to be legally liable to maintain the child. It may also substitute, discharge, suspend, or decline to make an existing maintenance order. 2
The order must state when the payments begin, the payment periods and dates, the person or institution receiving payment, and the method of payment. 2 Regulations may prescribe the procedure for a maintenance enquiry and the factors or guidelines to be considered by the maintenance court, but the supplied sources do not provide those regulations. 5
If paternity is disputed, and both the mother and alleged father are willing to provide blood or tissue samples, the maintenance officer may ask the court to hold an enquiry before a maintenance order is made. The court may consider the parties’ means and other relevant circumstances, and may decide who must pay the testing costs, including directing the State to pay some or all of them. 1
The sources do not provide the full contents of section 16 or the regulations governing the maintenance enquiry, so they do not support a more detailed account of the filing, hearing, evidence, or negotiation procedure. 5
Verified sources
Where this answer comes from
Maintenance Act 9 of 2003
(a) the paternity of any child is in dispute; (b) the mother of that child as well as the person who is alleged to be the father are prepared to submit themselves as well as that child to the taking of blood or tissue samples in order to carry out scientific tests regarding the paternity of that child; and (c) the mother or the alleged father or both the mother and the alleged father are unable to pay the costs involved in the carrying out of the scientific tests, the maintenance officer may at any time during a maintenance enquiry, but before the maintenance court makes any order, request the court to hold an enquiry referred to in subsection (2). (2) On receipt of a request made under subs...
Maintenance Act 9 of 2003
matters referred to in section 16, the maintenance court may, subject to Part II - (a) in the case where no maintenance order is in force, make a maintenance order against the person who has been proved to be legally liable to maintain a beneficiary; (b) in the case where a maintenance order is in force - (i) substitute that maintenance order by another maintenance order; or (ii) discharge such maintenance order; or (iii) suspend such maintenance order on such conditions which the maintenance court determines; (c) make no maintenance order. (2) An order made under subsection (1) - (a) must direct the defendant to contribute to the maintenance of the beneficiary from the date specified in the...
Dissolution of Marriages Act 10 of 2024
Act, the reference to a child, includes a child to whom the parties to the marriage owe the legal duty to maintain, despite the age of that child. (2) In divorce proceedings or annulment of marriage proceedings either party to the marriage may apply for an order of maintenance in respect of a child of the marriage. (3) The court may, on application made by either party to the marriage or both parties to the marriage jointly, make an order requiring one party to secure or pay to the other party such periodic sums as the court considers appropriate for the maintenance in respect of any or all of the children of the marriage. (4) On application by either party to the marriage or both parties to...
Maintenance Act 9 of 2003
otherwise provides, with respect to that child, cease if and when - (a) the child dies or is adopted by another person; (b) in respect of the marriage between the child’s parents, an order of divorce or a decree of nullity, which includes an order for the maintenance of the child is made; (c) the child marries; or (d) subject to subsection (2), the child attains the age of 18 years, but if the child is attending an educational institution for the purpose of acquiring a course which would enable him or her to maintain himself or herself, the maintenance order does not terminate until the child attains the age of 21 years. (2) Where a child in whose favour a maintenance order was made attains...
Maintenance Act 9 of 2003
(a) the powers, duties and functions of the maintenance officer, the maintenance investigator or the clerk of the maintenance court; (b) the procedure to be followed at or in connection with a maintenance enquiry; (c) the guidelines or the factors to be taken into account by a maintenance court when making a maintenance order; (d) the enforcement of maintenance or other orders of a maintenance court; (e) any matter required or permitted to be prescribed by regulation under this Act; (f) any matter which the Minister may consider necessary or expedient to prescribe in order that the objects of this Act may be achieved. (2) Regulations made under subsection (1) may prescribe penalties for any...
Maintenance Act 9 of 2003
the nature or amount of maintenance payable to that beneficiary, have regard to the following principles - (a) both parents of the child are primarily responsible for the maintenance of that child;