Custody battle over ZCC rituals

A PRETORIA mother has used a court to object to her former wife taking their two children to visit her new partner’s home and exposing their children to Zion Christian Church (ZCC) practices.

The two were in a same-sex marriage before the wife fell in love with her new lover, a man from Hammanskraal.

The mother claimed the man was subjecting, especially their son, to rituals which were not consistent with the Christian faith. The 36-year-old mother also claimed that her former wife’s new partner was superstitious.

The woman, who handed pictures to court of their now 8-year-old son running around shacks in Hammanskraal and playing with other children, asked the high court in Pretoria to declare her the primary caregiver of their son and daughter, aged 6.

One of her gripes was that their son was no longer allowed to eat pork because of the man’s religious practices.

But the respondent said she had found love with the man and recently had a daughter with him. She said he was good to her and the children.

The reason why the child could not eat pork, she said, was that friends had advised them to take him to ZCC headquarters in Moria for prayers because he suffered from a condition.

In court papers, the respondent said she suspected that her new lover’s race was the reason why her former wife was upset. “It is either that or she is jealous,” she said.

The respondent met the man while she and her ex-wife were still married. He was a petrol attendant at a local petrol service station which they frequented while they were still together.

The applicant, on the other hand, said the new lover was a short-tempered and abusive man, who told her it was her fault that his and the respondent’s first baby died. She said she had to obtain an interdict against him.

The court was told that in happier times each woman gave birth to a child via a sperm donor. They viewed the children as belonging to both of them and at the time of one of their pregnancies they participated in a reality TV show called Nine Months.

In 2015, the respondent started her relationship with her new lover and they divorced the following year when the applicant realised that her wife was expecting the man’s baby.

After a miscarriage, the man started stalking her and she had no choice but to obtain a protection order, she said.

After their divorce the children, especially the boy, often visited the respondent, but she either simply left him at her father’s home to go to Hammanskraal, or took him with her, the court was told.

Regarding the visits to Hammanskraal, the mother said: “I don’t know what hardships they are exposed to when there.”

She said despite the protection order, the man threatened her with “underworld connections” and said “nothing can protect her”.

The applicant said the boy is also confused when he returns home as to what he may and may not eat.

Due to his religion, the man also opposed homosexuality and she feared how he would react if he knew how the children were conceived.

But the respondent said her former wife was simply irrational.

The court ruled that the applicant would be the children’s primary caregiver and that the respondent could see them every alternate weekend. If not, a curator would be appointed.