A now divorced woman has discovered that if you cheat on your spouse, you lose.
The court ruled that she would forfeit half of her husband’s pension money because she left him and the children for other men.
The woman, who cannot be identified as the matter involves a divorce action, went to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to divorce her husband. She also asked that half of her husband’s pension be paid to her.
The husband, in turn, said his “cheating wife” should not get a cent and that the half of his government pension fund – to which a spouse married in community of property is usually entitled – should be forfeited due to her conduct over the years.
The couple got married in 2009 but the husband said the relationship soured over the years, as his wife simply left their home – sometimes for months on end – without telling him where she was going.
Shortly after their marriage she enrolled at a nursing school, where she stayed. She, however, refused to tell him where the nursing school was.
The husband eventually called a family meeting, where he said that she did not take care of him and the children. The wife was reprimanded, but things did not improve.
The husband told the court that his wife was fetched by an unknown man in the mornings and when he asked where she was going, she simply said, “I told you where I’m going.”
He said once she only returned home on three occasions during an entire year. When she eventually returned, she came home with a baby. When he asked her whose child it was, she replied, “It’s none of your business.”
The husband, a teacher, said his patience ran out and he could no longer live with his wife, who did not take care of him and the children.
The wife, on the other hand, told the court that she became distant as her husband refused for a year to have tlØf tlØf with her. Asked about this, the husband told Judge David Makhoba that this was true; he did not want to have tlØf tlØf with her because she was having affairs with other men.
The judge said the wife had abandoned her husband and children for greener pastures; and the husband was left behind to take care of the household while building up his assets, including his pension fund.
“The infidelity of the plaintiff (wife) and her conduct amounts to substantial misconduct as referred to in the Divorce Act,” the judge said. He ordered that she had to forfeit all benefits, including her husband’s pension and the assets he had built up over the years.
– Pretoria News
