The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ordered the Road Accident Fund to compensate a widow after an intense legal battle surrounding the legitimacy of her customary marriage.
Image: File
The South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ordered the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to compensate a widow, Catherine Letaoana, after an intense legal battle surrounding the legitimacy of her customary marriage to the late Samuel Chauke.
Chauke died in a car accident in 2011. He was first married to Flora Manganyi in a civil union and later entered into a customary marriage with Letaoana.
Chauke and Manganyi were not divorced but had lived separately for over 20 years.
Letaoana, 60, insisted that she was legally married to the deceased by way of customary marriage.
However, RAF denied the existence of the customary marriage, and the fact that Letaoana had relied on Chauke for financial support.
In her application, she testified that she met Chauke in 2007 and he told her he was divorced. Subsequently in August 2007 they decided to cohabitate.
She explained that she had no reason to doubt that he was divorced because he was a pastor and was ordained in 2008 at a church in Rustenburg. Moreover, his divorce status was confirmed by some of his relatives including his son and uncle.
As their relationship progressed, she said Chauke introduced her to his sisters and cousins but, in accordance with Tsonga tradition, he could only introduce her to his mother after lobola had been paid.
Similarly, Chauke could not enter her parental residence in accordance with Tswana custom after payment of lobolo.
In March 2010 they celebrated their marriage at her parents’ house, and she went to Chauke's family in Malamulele, Limpopo during May 2010, and was welcomed by his family members.
Before meeting Chauke, she said she worked at a well-known law firm in Johannesburg as a Human Resources Consultant. She resigned in 2004 to start a restaurant business and eventually sold it. Thereafter, she has not been employed again as it was hard to find another job due to her age.
She said Chauke was employed and earned R11,000 every month and the money was used to support both of them, and he also sent some to his mother.
During his funeral, she was allowed to sit on the traditional widows’ mattress, while the second wife, who had also attended the funeral, was not allowed to sit on the mattress. She argued that this signified that Chauke's family recognised her as the wife.
After the funeral, Chauke's employer informed her that she was a beneficiary on his policy and when she went to his workplace, she found the first wife already there. She said she received 60%, a figure that contrasted with the 40% allocated to Manganyi. She shared her amount with Chauke's mother and gave her five percent.
Even though she remarried again in March 2024, she said she and her new husband are surviving on government grants.
Meanwhile, in a written argument, RAF sought to argue that the customary marriage was invalidated by the provisions of the Civil Union Act which prohibits the conclusion of a customary marriage where there was a pre-existing civil marriage or civil union. However, this defence was never pleaded in court, nor put to Letaoana during cross-examination.
Judge Dawid Marais said RAF was not entitled to rely on such defence as the defence was not pleaded, nor was it fully ventilated during the trial.
RAF tried to rely on Chauke's death certificate which showed that he was still married to Manganyi, but judge Marais said the death certificate was meaningless as it does not reflect the entire history of the marriage, whether the marriage was dissolved by divorce, or by the death of a spouse.
"It also does not indicate whether the marriage was by way of civil union or by customary law. In the premises, the content of the death certificate does not assist the defendant (RAF) in this matter.
In addition, he said RAF failed to prove that Chauke and Manganyi's marriage was extant.
Judge Marais said he could not find deception in Letaoana's evidence as she had no reason to doubt a man who was to be ordained as a pastor, secondly, he assured her that he was divorced. Additionally, his family also believed that he was divorced.
Consequently, RAF was ordered to pay Letaoana for the loss of support caused by Chauke's death.
The matter was postponed to determine an appropriate amount due to Letaoana.
sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za
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