By Nomfundo Manyathi

Non-governmental organisation ProBono.Org held a Women’s Day focus event on 14 August at the Women’s Jail at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. More than 60 women attended the event, where they received legal advice on matters related to family law, property ownership and children’s rights.

The head of family and refugee law at ProBono.Org, Sharon Pillay, told De Rebus that the attorneys, advocates and mediators that were giving the legal advice had seen 33 clients in the first four hours of the event.

During a speech, advocate Elizabeth Steenhuisen spoke about forfeiture of benefits on divorce. She highlighted the fact that s 9(2) of the Divorce Act 70 of 1979 explicitly excludes a spouse requesting forfeiture from a mentality disturbed spouse or from one who is unconscious. This section states: ‘In the case of a decree of divorce granted on the ground of the mental illness or continuous unconsciousness of the defendant, no order for the forfeiture of any patrimonial benefits of the marriage shall be made against the defendant.’

Women who attended the event sought assistance on matters relating to customary marriages and the recognition thereof, divorce and property ‘hijacking’. Some of these women and their children had been evicted from their homes after their husbands had died, with their in-laws denying that a marriage had existed.

Nomfundo Manyathi, nomfundo@derebus.org.za

This article was first published in De Rebus in 2012 (Sept) DR 11.