Customary marriage under judicial spotlight:
[an extract from an Extremely Interesting Article by: Zelda Venter – Chief Reporter, Pretoria News – in IOL – 6 November 2024]
The Limpopo High Court, sitting in Polokwane, was faced with an application to decide whether a then 17-year-old who married a soldier in 1970 in terms of customary law in Zimbabwe is deemed to be legally married to him in terms of South African law.
The soldier husband moved to South Africa in the 1980s and left his wife behind in Zimbabwe. He, in the meantime, married a woman here, in terms of civil law.
The Zimbabwean wife, who is now in her 70s, turned to court to be declared the executor of her now late husband’s estate. She asked the court to declare her as his lawful wife and to overturn his civil marriage to the second wife.
The court was told that during the Zimbabwean war of liberation, known as the Rhodesian Bush War (1964-1979), the soldier, a black recruit to Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Army, married the then teenage applicant through customary rites in 1970. They had two children.
In commenting on the facts of the case, Acting Judge Malose Monene said that owing to him being a black member of a white army resisting the liberation of blacks, it was never safe for him to stay with his wife for any extended length of time at their rural homestead.
The Original, Full Article can be Viewed here → https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/news/customary-marriage-under-judicial-spotlight-a4b52388-eb8e-4c9a-9d74-92c79a67ba48