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A senior lawyer who sits on the panel that selects the country’s judges is at the centre of a bitter battle with his estranged wife. She has accused him of abuse and says he is trying to get away with paying her a paltry R200 000 settlement to annul their marriage.
The lawyer, who was appointed to the Judicial Service Commission by former president Jacob Zuma, allegedly beat her up at their engagement party in 2010. She claims he apologised and gave her R60 000. He allegedly paid a family elder who witnessed the beating R5 000.
The 33-year-old woman alleges he used to assault her in their Eastern Cape home and, once, during a heated argument, tried to shoot her. He missed and the bullet hit the coffee table. They separated in 2014, when he allegedly chased her out of their home.
The couple cannot be named for legal reasons.
The woman claims every time the man assaulted her, he apologised by giving her “lots of money” and by assuring her it would not happen again.
Because of this, she didn’t report anything to the police. The couple have no children together.
But the man denies the “spurious, falsified” allegations.
“No case nor protection orders were ever issued against me. Firstly, I object to the entire enquiry on a matter that is before court and, secondly, a matter that is not in the public interest, but rather concerns the private lives of individuals,” he said.
“It is strikingly shocking that she would be making such serious allegations against me after a period of five years since the date of our separation.”
The woman, who works as a support staffer in an Eastern Cape district municipality, says her marriage ended after her husband accused her of having an affair. He is now seeking to annul the marriage, she says.
Even though they were married in community of property, he refuses to divide their assets and has suggested he make a “donation” to her because she did not contribute to his wealth.
In a letter to her lawyers, which City Press has seen, the man’s attorneys say he is prepared to “donate to the respondent a sum of R200 000 payable in instalments”. Their marriage certificate states that theirs is a civil marriage.
However, the man told City Press by email that attorneys’ letters are “privileged information” that nobody has the right to publish.
The woman alleges that her estranged husband would sometimes call her after he had chased her away, telling her she must not fight him in court because he knows many judges in the province and that she will not win.
“He claims that he is the one who worked for the assets we have and that I did not contribute. When he responded to my lawyers, he says he can donate R200 000 to me. I am aggrieved. He has been threatening me a lot. I feel that he is using the judiciary in the wrong way and taking advantage of the fact that I don’t know the law and am not as well connected as he is.
“As we are married in community of property, by law I am entitled to 50% – the same way that he is also entitled to that 50%. But for him to come and tell me that he would donate R200 000, I feel it is an insult to me.”
The woman says she has blocked his calls because he often phones to tell her how weak her lawyers are.
The case is set to be heard in the Mthatha High Court, and the woman is still waiting for a court date. She wants the case to be heard in the Grahamstown High Court, away from Mthatha, where her estranged husband often works and has connections. He has refused to agree to this.
She claims she made many sacrifices to be with him – including giving up a job as a deputy director in the office of late former cooperative governance minister Sicelo Shiceka.
“I feel I am being victimised as a young woman. This thing just makes me angry, honestly. Divorce needs money because I need to consult lawyers before I go to court. My salary as an employee at the municipality is not enough.
“When he convinced me to come back from Gauteng, I was a deputy director. He made me come here and become a housewife. I resigned in the late minister’s office in 2010 to be with him.”
In his email, the man says he last lived with his wife in 2013, that the “marriage issue” is sub judice and the reasons for the annulment are the “subject of court litigation”.
“As a matter of principle and the law, including issues of confidentiality, I am not at liberty to make comments, nor is anybody allowed to make public comments on private personal matters.
“For these reasons, I object to the publication of the interview you must have had with her, as those allegations are untested and not made under oath. The court papers in the matter are supported by evidence from both of us. It would be in the best interest of everybody concerned to await the trial and the hearing of the matter.”
The man threatened City Press with legal action: “Should you proceed to publish these defamatory, unsubstantiated and malicious allegations, we reserve our right to invoke the legal process against yourselves. Litigation is not done by way of media, more so that this is a private matter which is not in the public interest, until such time that the allegations are verified and confirmed.”
