FW's son too broke to pay R15000 child maintenance

FW de Klerk's son, Willem de Klerk, says he is too broke to pay R15000 a month maintenance for a baby he now admits is his.

The son of the last apartheid president shot to prominence last month when President Jacob Zuma posed with a 5-month-old baby girl during an election trip to Paarl, Cape Town.

It emerged almost immediately that the baby was the illegitimate daughter of De Klerk, 44, who had been hauled to court for maintenance by the baby's mother, Desiree Joseph, 27.

De Klerk, who is separated from his wife, at first disputed that he was the father of the baby, but this has now been confirmed through paternity tests.

Joseph, a person of colour, has told the media that she had a romantic relationship with De Klerk for more than two years. It ended when she caught him with an older, white woman in a bar in her town.

She was reportedly seven months pregnant at the time.

But yesterday, De Klerk told the Afrikaans newspaper Rapport that Joseph had "trapped" him.

He said he never had a romantic long-term relationship with Joseph, whom he only saw sometimes, late at night.

He said he was struggling financially because he had not had enough work during the recession.