Court blocks father's R426,000 pension payout over unpaid maintenance
Judge Johannes Daffue of the Free State High Court stopped the Government Employees' Pension Fund from paying a former state prosecutor, until maintenance proceedings for his two minor children end. The mother had asked the court to preserve R607,400.
The father, identified as Mr K, worked as a prosecutor for the National Prosecuting Authority until 2022. His former wife, Mrs K, applied for the interdict. The maintenance proceedings are before the Bloemfontein maintenance court.
A court ordered maintenance of R1,500 per month per child in 2020. In May 2025 the amount rose to R2,500 per month per child. The mother also won R160,000 in arrear maintenance, and R66,000 in future maintenance was ordered earlier. The court set aside R100,000 to secure an extra year of maintenance.
The father argued that he could not pay because the pension fund refused to pay out his benefits after the mother brought her application. Daffue rejected this view. He said the father is a recalcitrant father who has neglected his children for many years.
Daffue said: "Courts need to be alive to recalcitrant maintenance defaulters who use legal processes to side-step their obligations towards their children."
Key facts
- Who
- Johannes Daffue (judge, Free State High Court); Mr K (father who failed to pay child maintenance; former prosecutor for the National…); Mrs K (former wife and mother who applied to the court); Government Employees' Pension Fund (pension fund interdicted from paying the father)
- What
- Judge Johannes Daffue ordered the Government Employees' Pension Fund interdicted from paying R426,000 to a former National Prosecuting Authority prosecutor over unpaid child maintenance, pending finalisation of maintenance proceedings in the Bloemfontein maintenance court.
- When
- 27 October 2026
- Where
- Free State, Bloemfontein
- Status
- Reported