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DIVORCES

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DIVORCE AND THE INJUSTICE TO CHILDREN CAUSED BY PARENTAL ALIENATION

Parental alienation is a set of processes and behaviours conducted and enacted by a parent to deliberately and knowingly damage or sever the relationship between a child and another parent with whom the child enjoyed a prior loving relationship.

By Marici Corneli Samuelson BIuris (UP) Director at Family Assist and a Mediator at Mediationworx in Pretoria.

Read the full article here: http://www.derebus.org.za/divorce-and-the-injustice-to-children-caused-by-parental-alienation/

MOVING TOWARDS A GUILT-FREE DIVORCE

Before the Divorce Act 70 of 1979 (the Divorce Act) was promulgated, the grounds of divorce in South Africa (SA) were –

malicious desertion;
adultery;
incurable mental illness; and
imprisonment for at least five years after having been declared a habitual criminal.

On divorce, the guilty party could be punished with an order of total forfeiture of marital benefits, unless the ground for divorce was mental illness. The logic behind this principle was that a spouse should not be allowed to benefit financially from a marriage, which he or she wrecked (see HR Hahlo The South African Law of Husband and Wife 5ed (Cape Town: Juta 1985) at p 430). The legislature decided to do away with ‘fault’ as a ground for divorce when it enacted the Divorce Act. Given SA’s elaborate Bill of Rights that has been espoused in the Constitution one would expect that any fault in South African divorce law would have been completely done away with and archived.

By Tshepo Munene LLB (Unisa) the executive director of Caselaw Consultant and the founder of www.familylaw.bar in Midrand.

Read the full article here: http://www.derebus.org.za/moving-towards-a-guilt-free-divorce/

THE RESCISSION OF DIVORCE ORDERS: A NOTE OF CAUTION TO COURTS

There is no doubt that the rescission and variation of divorce orders in our courts has not been easy. One important question that our courts have grappled with is whether or not a court can rescind a divorce order, which has been granted in default. This question has been a bone of contention in the High Courts and recently in the regional courts.

This article briefly investigates the manner in which our courts and in particular, the High Court has dealt with these questions and will explore the principles that will serve as a guide for the judiciary and the wider legal fraternity in dealing with applications of this nature. There is a plethora of cases on this topic decided by the various High Courts. However, a discussion of all those cases goes beyond the scope of this article.

By James D Lekhuleni BProc (UNIN) LLB (UL) LLM (UP) LLM (UP) LLD (UWC) a regional magistrate in Cape Town.

Read the full article here: http://www.derebus.org.za/the-rescission-of-divorce-orders-a-note-of-caution-to-courts/

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Divorces – Fish Hoek Cape Town