An unemployed woman who was left to fend for herself walked away with R1.5 million from her estranged husband’s pension fund in an uncontested divorce.

The ruling was made in the Soshanguve Magistrate’s Court in Pretoria after her former partner failed to appear in court in July 2025, leaving *Annah Morema to navigate her own legal path after years of hardship.

Morema got married to her now ex-husband after he paid lobola in 2003. But their marriage was never registered at Home Affairs.

They didn’t have children in their marriage. However, Morema already had two children with her late husband, and her ex-husband also had children from previous relationships – some were born during their marriage.

According to Morema, she was running a small business when she met her ex-husband. She sold cold drinks and was operating public phones.

Despite her income, her ex-husband, who worked as a technician at Eskom, financially handled everything in the house. He also gave her a monthly allowance.

Over time, her business started dwindling as smartphones became prevalent. Her cold drink business also collapsed due to lack of customers.

She expressed her aspirations for self-improvement through education in sewing and catering, but these dreams were squashed by her husband’s refusal to support her.

He insisted that he didn’t want a working wife, claiming it would emasculate him as he was financially supporting the entire family without fail. In an effort to maintain peace, Morema listened and became a stay-at-home wife.

Though Morema had forgiven his past infidelities, this one incident was different; his behaviour was uncouth and deliberate. His financial support began to decline, and he eventually stopped giving her an allowance.

This was followed by the revelation that he was cheating with a much younger woman and was paying for her university fees.

Without notice, he came back from work one evening in 2015 and moved out with his son. Six months later, he had a big wedding celebration with his girlfriend without divorcing Morema.

To rub salt into the wound, he bought a house in the same area where he used to live with Morema.

Morema shared her story with IOL, which caught the attention of Ditabe and Wagner Attorneys, who offered their assistance after nearly a decade of personal turmoil.

“I didn’t want to separate him from his new wife; I didn’t want any of his assets. But I sought compensation for the injustice I suffered,” Morema said, highlighting the discrepancies of her husband pursuing education for another woman while denying her support for her own growth.

When issued with summons, Morema’s husband maintained he was already married and denied marrying Morema. He also refused to sign the court documents – subsequently snubbing the court proceedings.

The divorce went ahead without him and Morema was awarded R1.5 million from his pension fund.

A lawyer, Jackqueline Wagner said they took Morema’s case because of the injustice they saw in her case, and they knew she was protected by the law.

“A lot of women who enter into customary marriages find themselves in positions where their spouses end the marriage relationship by breaking up, something not recognised in law as a marriage only ends in divorce or death,” she said.

Wagner said despite paying lobola, husbands tend to challenge the validity of the marriage by stating that the marriage was not registered and claim they are already married to someone else in terms of civil law where that marriage is registered at home affairs.

“We see this often in practice and it is a misunderstanding of customary law and customary marriages. This leads to detrimental social and financial consequences, which can be remedied by the proper application of the law,” she said.

Wagner pointed out that even though Morema’s case wasn’t contested, they faced a significant challenge in convincing the court of the validity of the marriage.

“This case was factually sound because the client had the evidence to support the allegations thus, we knew that there are good prospects. We present the case to the best of our abilities, but the court makes the final determination, and the court does sometimes get it wrong, thus we can appeal it when we believe there are strong prospects of success.”

Even though Morema received half of her husband’s pension fund, Wagner stated that the law does not consider cheating and unethical behavior as valid reasons for entitlement to an estate.

“We sometimes have the difficult job of informing clients that despite their strong feelings of injustice, legally they have no case. In this case we were confident of the outcome because the client provided us with evidence. Our main pursuit is justice for our clients,” she said.

* Name changed to protect her identity.

sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za

IOL News

Get your news on the go. Download the latest IOL App for Android and IOS now.

Source link