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When does a parent’s duty to financially
support a child end?

Malefa Mzamo
May 2018

“I’m divorced and have been paying maintenance for my ex and my two
children for a number of years. My eldest son has now finished school and
wants to go to university. My ex is now insisting that I must contribute to his
university studies as part of my maintenance obligations. Surely now that he is
an adult, my responsibility to maintain will have stopped?”

Section 18 of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005 states that the parental responsibilities
and rights in respect of a child include the responsibility and the right to
contribute to the maintenance of the child. Maintenance includes the
reasonable provision towards a child for clothing, housing, dental and medical
care, and education. Both parents have a duty to maintain the child according
to their respective means and the circumstances and needs of the child.
In South Africa, a parent’s duty to support a child does not cease when the
child reaches the age of majority (18 years) but usually ceases when the
child becomes self-supporting. A parent’s responsibility and right to apply for
maintenance on behalf of a minor child ceases when the child becomes a
major, namely 18 years of age. However, this does not mean that a parent’s
duty to maintain the major child now ceases. It means that in this instance, the
child is deemed to be old enough to bring an application for maintenance in
his or her own name. It has also been held, that the wording of a court order
regarding the responsibility of maintenance is the deciding factor as to when
the maintenance obligation will lapse.
So, where a maintenance order provides for payment of maintenance until a
child reaches a certain age (even beyond majority), such an order will not
cease to exist when a child becomes self-supporting and will need to be set
aside by way of an application by a parent that is able to prove that the setting
aside of the maintenance order is warranted.

If a major child ceases to be self-supporting for reasons such as ill-health
or disability, the duty to maintain may be revived. The interpretation of self-
sufficiency is in the courts’ discretion and dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
It is important to note that major children are not maintained as extensively as
minors and the reasonableness of the parent’s duty to maintain such a child is
an essential factor which must be considered in these cases.
Family A minor child’s maintenance is normally paid into the account of the caregiving-
parent. This position may change when the minor child reaches majority as the
money can then be paid into the major child’s bank account.

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