MP’s marriage valid despite denial

A SENIOR opposition MP has been told that his almost decade-long customary marriage – that he now claims never took place – is valid.

The customary marriage of the MP, who turns 41 next month, entered into in July 2012, with the mother of one of his six children, was declared valid by Western Cape High Court Judge Lee Bozalek on Friday.

His estranged wife commenced divorce proceedings in November 2016.

The parties to the divorce cannot be identified because they have a teenage daughter born in 2007.

But in court papers filed by the MP, he claimed his estranged wife made an unsuccessful attempt to force through the marriage ceremonies unilaterally.

According to the MP, the issue became a huge bone of contention between the couple and their respective families, to the extent that they bickered and quarrelled from then on and were only together until the end of 2012.

“Our relationship disintegrated and ended before the finalisation of the payment of the lobola, and before the commencement of other formalities which are essential … In January 2015, when it became clear that the differences we experienced in our relationship would not be reconcilable, I moved out of my house which, until then, I shared with the applicant (the estranged wife) and my daughter,” the MP told the court.

The MP argued that after, partly paying the lobola for the woman, he experienced irreconcilable differences.

“The differences that we experienced in our relationship, which culminated in the ultimate breakdown of the relationship, were solely caused by the applicant’s (the estranged wife’s) repulsive and indifferent attitude towards my other children and my family,” he explained.

Judge Bozalek also heard that the politician was the father of six children, by a number of women.

The MP also argued that his estranged wife’s case should be rejected on the basis that the lobola negotiations had never been concluded, among other reasons.

Even his mother denied that any marriage ceremony took place, that she dressed the estranged wife in her makoti attire, a sheep was slaughtered, that the woman was given a new name, as is tradition, and then sent to family elders to guide her through a process known as ukuyalwa.

However, the woman told the court that her estranged husband invited her to visit him at work, and introduced her to his secretary and another opposition MP as a married woman, carrying his surname.

Judge Bozalek rejected the MP’s contention that his estranged wife unilaterally decided that, uninvited and unheralded, she would drive to his rural Eastern Cape homestead and insist on going through with marriage rituals, even though the lobola negotiations were at an inconclusive stage and in the face of his strong opposition. “To my mind, this is a most improbable scenario, which could or would have been brought to a grinding halt when the defendant’s (MP’s) mother or an elder simply telephoned the defendant in Cape Town, to ascertain whether all this was with his knowledge and consent,” the judge found. He said it was far more likely that the estranged wife proceeded to the MP’s homestead with the knowledge and consent of not only him, but his family – as the lobola negotiations were successfully concluded. In the woman’s version, which Judge Bozalek found made sense, there are telling details – including the MP calling his mother to find out how things had gone and his insistence that her proposed new name be changed.

The judge also ordered the MP to pay his estranged wife’s legal costs.