CONDONATION - Application for condonation of failure to deliver an answering affidavit within the period stipulated in High Court Rule 8 (10) (b) – Applicant must in terms of Rule 59 satisfy the court that it is in the interests of justice to exercise its discretion in favour of  condoning the failure to follow the rules – Nature of court’s discretion and factors to be considered in exercising it discussed.

CHIEFTAINSHIP -  Whether the King ought to be joined in proceedings challenging a legal notice made pursuant to section 14(2) of the Chieftainship Act. 

King having acted on the advice of the Minister of Local Government and Chieftainship Affairs- Court finds it improper and unnecessary  to cite or join the King in such proceedings- where the King in such circumstances has been so advised by the Minister he is obliged to follow the advice and act accordingly. Therefore, it is unnecessary to burden the King with service where no direct recourse is sought or may be obtained against him.

Reviewing and setting aside of the advice of the Minister of Chieftainship Affairs to the King, as to who should succeed to the office of Chief.

Setting aside of a government notice declaring a successor to chieftainship.

Declarator of the lawful and rightful Chief.

Summary

Marriage – Divorce – Adultery – Decree of divorce granted – Matrimonial property – Guilty spouse – Discretion of court – Interests to be considered – Irreconcilability of parties in the divorce proceedings.

Where a divorce has been granted to a wife on grounds of adultery, the disposition of matrimonial property where forfeiture of benefits has been sought in the summons, the court in its discretion can make an order thereof as interests require, especially of children and decree of blameworthiness.

Sanctity of marriage is antithetical to adulterous behavior by the spouse.

SUMMARY

Administration of estates – application by residual legatee to remove the curator bonis and to review and set aside an interdict preserving status quo pending outcome in main case – whether applicant has locus standi – Administration of Estates Proclamation 1935, sections 101 and 109.

SUMMARY

SUCCESSION: The applicant is seeking to annul the Will of his late grandmother in terms of which she bequeathed certain immovable property to his sister (1st respondent)- the 1st respondent failing to discharge the onus resting on her to prove that the deceased had abandoned her customary mode of life in favour of the European one, when she allegedly executed the Will- held, the application should succeed.

SUMMARY

BIRTHS AND DEATHS: Applicants instituting an urgent application for exhumation of the deceased’s body for purposes of conducting postmortem examination barely a month after agreeing that the deceased should be buried- Application dismissed on a punitive scale for lack of urgency.

SUMMARY

FAMILY LAW: The existence of marriage following elopement and in situation where the no negotiations on marriage and amount of bohali to be paid having taken place- the parties having lived together for almost five years as husband and wife after the plaintiff’s acceptance into the family per usual customary rituals- Held, on the conspectus of all the evidence, marriage exist and that the deceased’s family are estopped from denying the existence of marriage.

Matrimonial Causes: An order of forfeiture of benefits of marriage following a degree of divorce on the ground of malicious desertion – Principles applicable articulated.

Marriage — Divorce — Proprietary rights —Parties married in community of property - Marriage in community of property — Legal Capacity of Married Persons Act, 2006 - the legal effect of the property allegedly alienated by the respondent on the division of the joint estate.

Appeal - Pension interest   of member by operation of law vesting in joint estate, to which parties entitled as at date of divorce — Divorce Act 70 of 1979, ss 7(7)(a) and (8).