A Limpopo woman who bore two children outside her marriage has lost her share of her ex-husband’s Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) after the court upheld a forfeiture ruling against her.
The woman, whose identity has been withheld, approached the Limpopo High Court in Polokwane to challenge a forfeiture order issued by the lower court during her divorce proceedings.
She asked the court to overturn the ruling and reinstate her claim to her former husband’s pension.
Marriage and Breakdown
According to IOL, the couple married in community of property in November 2015.
At the time, the woman was 30 and her husband was nearly 60. They had one child in 2016.
She left the marital home in September 2019, returned in 2020, but received a divorce summons in June 2021.
In October 2021, she left permanently after her husband threatened to shoot her. She later built a three-bedroom house with money provided by her husband.
Extramarital Affairs and Children
Court records revealed that the woman had extramarital affairs during the marriage, which resulted in two children.
The first was born in February 2019, and the second in June 2022, indicating that her affairs may have begun as early as 2018.
She demanded maintenance for both children, claiming they were her husband’s. After insisting on DNA tests, the husband proved the children were not his.
Her Arguments in Court
In her application, the woman argued that the magistrate erred by treating adultery as grounds for forfeiture.
She maintained that case law requires proof of financial misconduct before granting such an order.
The woman insisted she never wasted joint estate assets with her boyfriend and claimed she contributed significantly to the estate despite being unemployed.
She also argued that the court should have considered her husband’s abuse as a more serious factor than her infidelity.
Judge Rejects Her Appeal
Judge Mariska Naude-Odendaal dismissed her appeal, ruling that she had no valid grounds.
The judge found that the woman not only committed adultery but also lied under oath when she claimed her two children were her husband’s while applying for maintenance.
The judge said her misconduct extended to taking her husband’s bank card, spending his money with other men, and falsely attributing children to him until DNA tests proved otherwise.
The court upheld the forfeiture ruling, leaving the woman without a share in her ex-husband’s pension.
Should adultery and dishonesty in marriage cost a spouse their financial claims in divorce?
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