A jaw-dropping courtroom showdown unfolds as a South African man faces a mind-boggling sentence that is already raising eyebrows.
Charles, the man at the centre of this saga, is now facing an unthinkable fate which is to spend weekdays at his job and weekends behind bars.
The drama unfolds with Charles and Renee, a once-happily-married couple entangled in a seemingly endless divorce battle, which they’ve been dragging for the past five years.
According to reports, Renee, the determined ex-wife, took a bold step and applied for interim maintenance while the divorce battle raged on, citing the urgent need for financial support.
On a fateful day, May 4, 2021, the scales of justice tipped in Renee’s favour. The court issued a ruling against Charles, ordering him to open up his wallet and provide a monthly allowance to cover Renee’s expenses, along with paying specific bills directly to service providers.
To add fuel to the fire, Charles was also slapped with the responsibility of coughing up an initial sum for Renee’s legal fees.
Charles, apparently unimpressed with the court’s decision, refused to comply with the order. Renee on the other hand fired back with a “contempt of court” application.
On June 19, 2021, Charles found himself on the wrong side of the law, convicted of contempt for not following the court’s directives. He was then given a 14-day stint behind bars, a sentence that hung in suspension pending the eventual resolution of their divorce, provided he cleared all his arrears in maintenance payments.
It wasn’t until Charles was served with this dire ultimatum that he decided to settle his outstanding arrears.
In the courtroom showdown that followed, the judges had to decide whether it was time to throw the book at Charles and enforce the suspended sentence, or if there was room for some adjustments.
Based on the presented evidence, the court had an epiphany – Charles could meet some of the conditions attached to the suspended sentence. He did, after all, eventually pay his overdue maintenance, a hefty sum that covered more than 14 months of cash payments.
Charles, desperate to avoid the ominous bars of prison, came up with an intriguing argument. He claimed that his business, which supported both him and Renee, would crumble if he were locked away.
In response, the court conjured up an unconventional solution. Instead of locking Charles away full-time, they suggested a shocking twist – periodic imprisonment on weekends. The idea behind the court’s decision was to allow him to run his business, rake in an income, and keep the financial wheels turning, all while meeting his obligations to Renee.
