Woman sentenced to jail for blocking ex from seeing his child in contempt of two court orders

A mother has been sentenced to 12 months' jail time for going against court orders and continuing to keep the father from gaining access to their child over the past three years.

The frustrated father turned to the Pretoria high court to declare the mother of his child defied two court orders on the matter, with the first handed by judge LI Vorster in August 2021 and the second by judge Papi Mosopa in June 2022.

Despite the order by Vorster, which ruled the father must pay maintenance of R15,000 per month and be granted reasonable contact with the child and visitation every alternate weekend, he was blocked from contact with his child. He approached the high court again, and Mosopa found the mother was in contempt of Vorster's order. 

The father, through his legal representative, requested the court to consider the interest of the child as he was deprived of his rights as provided for in the Children’s Act.

In her judgment this month, judge Portia Phahlane criticised the mother and her legal representative for intentionally violating the two court orders and disregarding the child’s interests.

She said the father had written to the mother’s attorney in an attempt to enforce the court orders as he wanted to fetch the child on September 1 last year.

“The [mother] did not respond to this correspondence and remained disobedient towards the orders, rendering the decision of the court impotent and the judicial authority a mere mockery.

“One would have expected the [mother] of the minor child to make decisions which would serve the best interests of the minor child as they are of paramount importance. The best interest of the child in this case is the child’s right to have a relationship with his father.”

The father’s lawyers had argued that a nine-month sentence for the mother’s contempt was too lenient, and Phahlane agreed.

She said it was clear the mother behaved in an “unreasonable and unlawful” manner by grossly violating and disregarding the rule of law in 2021 and again in 2022.

Phahlane ordered the mother to be imprisoned for contempt of two court orders for 12 months, and to pay the legal costs incurred by the father in his application.

The father was granted immediate access to the minor and the mother was ordered to deliver the child to him.

Phahlane said: “There is no doubt in my mind that the jurisdictional requirements necessary to hold the [mother] in contempt of court were met, as demonstrated by the correspondence. Similarly, the [mother] is fully aware of the contempt order granted against her and she is determined to frustrate the applicant and rob him of his relationship with his child.”

TimesLIVE