THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 10 2010 02:58 | LAST UPDATED Feb 10 2010 02:58

ADVERTISE WITH US | CONTACT US | STORY TIP-OFFS | M&G NEWSLETTER

Opinion \| Comment & Analysis

Zuma's wives in a very tricky spot

JENNIFER WILLIAMS: COMMENT - Mar 12 2008 06:00

1 comment | Post your comment

Jacob Zuma's wives are no doubt well advised, and seem to have no end of uncles, columnists and pundits counselling them and Zuma on whether they should marry Zuma and whether or not they are in fact married, given the status of negotiations.

But I am concerned that there is one matter that seems to have escaped these women. It is that once a husband has married once under customary law, the second and third marriages et cetera may only be recognised in terms of the Recognition of the Customary Marriages Act of 1998 if the man brings an application to court for permission to marry again. The application has to set out the property systems for his various wives.

The rest of the man's wives have to be represented in the application, including his future wives. The idea is that the court then comes to the assistance of the women and children of the marriages in setting out how the marital property is to be distributed equitably.

This is not how it was done in the old days, but then, in the old days, you also didn't have title deeds to land, cars and shares in companies. The question of how property is assigned to each wife and child could theoretically be handled in a fair way, if you had a man who was very scrupulous and careful about his affairs.

I think we can safely say that that is not the case with Zuma. What is the position of his wives and children in the absence of such a court application? The law does not say whether the marriages are rendered invalid.

We would argue that the marriages are valid, but the first and second wives are clearly prejudiced by the lack of application. Each time the man brings an application for a new marriage to be recognised, the wives are entitled to apply for a division of the existing property.

With no application being brought, those wives are then just in the queue at the time of the dissolution of the marriage and it is not clear how the money is then divided. The first wives certainly lose out in patrimonial terms with each new marriage, unless such an application is made.

Obviously Zuma might be reluctant to make such an application at this time as it would require him disclosing his assets to the court. But in the absence of such an application, the position of his current wives, legally speaking, weakens with each passing day and each new marriage.

Jennifer Williams is the director of the Women's Legal Centre

CONTINUES BELOW

TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE

People

Jennifer Williams

Organisations

Womenâ€™s Legal Centre

Comments

What the politicians and journalists ignore in this is the effect they have on the wives and the children - none of which ran for office or took an oath.

John Scharf on April 12, 2009, 1:40 am

You must be logged in to comment. Log in or sign up to comment

click here to log in

M&G Online Comment Guidelines In Brief

No hate speech;
No racist, sexist or homophobic remarks;
Keep it short;
Keep it on topic;
Show respect to all;
We reserve the right to remove or delete any comment without notice or reason.

Click here for the full Comment Guidelines

Advertising Links

Click hereÖ

Your M&G Online

Follow the Mail & Guardian on Twitter!

Direct message us on our mailandguardian account to chat to the M&G Online team.


		THIS WEEK'S PAPER Subscribe Subs promotions Get digital edition

Advertising links

OUDE MEESTER INSURANCE JUNCTION PROPERTY FOR SALE INTERNET SOLUTIONS COMPAQ LAPTOPS	MAP SEARCH HOLIDAY FINDER BID OR BUY INSURANCE YOU CAN TRUST