It Feels As If My Children Have Died

Two of Louwna’s sons have sued her for maintenance – and now they’ve cut all ties with her

- Jacques Myburgh 

She looks emotionally exhausted, utterly shattered, almost as if she’s mourning the loss of a loved one. Which to all intents and purposes, she is – although no one has actually died.

Louwna Klintworth clutches a cup of coffee in her lawyer’s Pretoria office, her hands trembling as she brings the mug to her lips.

The 57-year-old office manager has been through the ringer – and the pair behind the misery are two of the people she loves most in the world: her youngest sons.

The first blow hit her like a bolt of lightning: a summons in February last year from her middle son, Thomas. Then an accounting student in his first year at the University of the Witwatersrand, Thomas (now 20) demanded his divorced mom fork out R14 000 a month for, among other things, pocket money, residence fees and varsity tuition.

This was the beginning of an 18-month battle. Louwna told us last year she couldn’t support Thomas’ “expensive lifestyle” (YOU, 8 August 2019). Her cost to company at her Joburg firm was R50 000 a month but her take-home pay was R27 000 and she couldn’t afford to give her son the amount he was demanding.

“If I had the money, I’d absolutely pay for him but my situation doesn’t allow it,” she said at the time. She was paying R3 300 a month towards her son’s upkeep and tuition and that was all she could manage.

Little did she know a second blow was waiting for her. Barely a month after our interview, her youngest son, Declan, a learner at Parktown Boys High in Johannesburg who’d just turned 18, announced he was suing her too.

His claim? More than R16 000 a month. He too demanded his mom cover his expenses.