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Gee, a real headscratcher here trying to figure out who this ex-president may be.

Join me as we attempt to connect the dots.

You may recall that this saga first broke into the headlines last October, when the estranged wife of an unnamed former president (a Constitutional Court ruling forbids naming the parties) alleged that he has far more money tucked away than he’s letting on.

She was looking for a cool R170 000 a month in maintenance payments to support her and her two children, and said the ex-president could comfortably afford that.

Since then, the estranged wife had revised the figure she was seeking down to R145 000 a month, and will now have to settle for ‘just’ the R95 000 a month, after a ruling by Pietermaritzburg high court acting judge Barry Skinner.

The most interesting part of it all, reports TimesLIVE, is that the former president’s bank statements were handed in:

Judge Skinner, in his ruling on Thursday, agreed with the contentions of the estranged wife’s advocate Sian Clarence that they showed many large payments going into his account and that he was not just receiving his pension (of about R145,000 a month) as he claimed in his papers.

The former president has gone on the record to say he’s living off ‘just’ his pension (nothing wrong with R145k a month), but there are all kinds of other payments arriving in his various accounts every month.

For example:

In February this year, the FNB account reflected six payments in one day of R11,964 each.

“There are on occasion large cash deposits, such as R60,000 (in September 2020), R100,000 (in October 2020) and a mag tape credit of R3,950 (in September 2020).

“While I accept it was some time ago, there was a credit payment in April 2018 (from Ntombela) of R200,000.”

The judge noted the last bond payment of R66,000 had come off in July 2018 “which raises a strong query regarding his contention under oath that he was still paying the bond”.

He said in October 2018, there were credits adding up to R1,158,000, which over the same months was reduced by funds used in the amount of R109,441.

“There are large cash withdrawals on a regular basis,” he said.

That’s just his FNB account, by the way.

There’s also a Capitec account, which received a cheque deposit of R500 000 in January last year, and an Absa account, which had a balance in excess of R200 000 last August.

This despite the former president saying he has no business interests.

So, about that R95 000 a month maintenance:

In setting the amount at R95,000, the judge said he had disallowed medical expenses because she had access to free medical care through the department of defence, disallowed a monthly vehicle installment, and cut back pay for three domestic workers, a personal assistant and an au pair from R23,000 per month to R17,000.

He said while certain of her expenses appeared to be overstated, even taking into account her status as a former first lady, he had applied his best judgment and had taken a “robust view”.

My sympathy is seriously curtailed by the fact that there are three domestic workers, a PA, and an au pair to help out.

I’ll end things there, before I say too much.

[source:timeslive]