South Africa :Wife wins legal battle for financial security after 30 years of marriage
In their divorce, a lady who spent over thirty years taking care of her husband and making his life simpler stood to lose everything because her husband believed that she should have taken care of herself.
However, the 58-year-old wife told the Pietermaritzburg High Court that despite helping him with his business, taking care of his five-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, and doing everything she could for him, he never gave her access to money, despite what he had promised.
The wife told the court that she is struggling to make ends meet and that finding a job at her age is difficult.
While the husband believes that she should fend for herself, he did agree during the divorce proceedings that she did “normal things as a wife would do”, but added that they had full-time servants.
She would, however, make coffee for him, pour him a whisky, and if there was a garment that needed mending, she would repair it, he said.
When asked if there was any reason why she should not get anything out of the marriage, he stated that he explained to her that she had to work and ensure a pension.
The wife testified that she started working for her husband when she was 18, as a receptionist. In 1990, they went on their first date while he was still married. Following his divorce, they got married nine years later.
According to her, he only gave her cash to pay for the electricity and water, and she had the use of a vehicle. They were together 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as they were together at work and at home, she said.
When his small son came to live with them, she worked only in the mornings to take care of the child before he went back to his mother at age 12. She also cooked at home, did washing and laundry, cleaned the house, and did the ironing.
Her husband started skydiving as a hobby, and she supported him in this endeavour and assisted him on each occasion. She even learned how to fold his equipment, the wife told the court.
According to her, her husband owned assets worth millions, including paintings by famous artists and properties. All she has, she said, is a house belonging to her elderly parents, in which they are living, and which was registered in her name.
Judge Elsje-Marie Bezuidenhout remarked that it is difficult to understand how the wife had to provide for a pension when she had no money, especially as her husband had maintained that he would care for her.
She said the conduct of the husband is not what one would expect of parties to a marriage, where people have lived together for over 30 years.
He was married to her during the prime of her life; for more than 30 years, she assisted him in his daily life and was always by his side, the judge said in ordering that the husband had to pay her 40% of the net value of his estate within three months of the date of this order.
He must also pay her R20,000 a month for the next year.