Relocation involving children a thorny issue
RELOCATION matters involving children are probably one of the thorniest issues a family court is called upon to resolve. These were the words of a judge who granted an application in favour of the mother of two small children to relocate with them to the UK.
The mother, a chartered accountant, said she had obtained employment in the UK and, besides, she and her now former husband always planned to relocate from South Africa. The father said he did not have a problem with his wife and children moving to the UK, but he said this was not the right time as the children were too young at this stage.
The mother turned to the Gauteng South High Court, Johannesburg, to obtain permission to relocate with their son, aged 9, and his sister, 7.
While the children are primarily living with their mother, the father launched a counter-application in which he asked that the children instead live with him while the mother moved to the UK. In the opening to his judgment, Acting Judge F Bezuidenhout said: “Like Humpty Dumpty, a family once broken by divorce cannot be put back together in precisely the same way.”
He said often the interests of a resident parent who wished to move away were pitted against those of a non-resident parent.
“To exacerbate matters further, the court must weigh the paramount interests of the child.”
The mother told the court she had considered relocation with the children for some time. In fact, while still married to each other and during mid-2019, her then husband explored the possibility of relocating abroad.
After the divorce and after he heard that she wanted to move, he stated that he and his new wife would also relocate to be close to the children. However, he had a change of heart since then.
The parties agreed to appoint an independent psychologist to investigate whether relocation was in the children’s interests.
The mother told her former husband in December 2022 about her plans to move and the following month he laid criminal charges of fraud against her, claiming that she had provided him with a fake Covid19 test and had placed the children in danger. There was no merit in the complaint and the wife was not prosecuted.
The father claimed that the mother had Covid-19 at the time, and when he refused to return the children to her after they had visited him, she produced a fake negative test result. While his wife was on honeymoon following her marriage to her new husband, her former husband sent an anonymous email to her work saying she was guilty of fraud. He laid a formal complaint of dishonesty against her with the professional body with whom she was registered.
The children, when interviewed by the psychologist, did not want to choose between the parents.
Judge Bezuidenhout said he was satisfied that the mother had been shown to be responsible. The judge made a lengthy order regarding the commuting of the children to South Africa to visit their father, which included that once a year, the mother had to buy a plane ticket for the father to go to the UK.