Court blocks cheating housewife from accessing husband’s pension benefit

A woman who had a child with her husbands friend and publicly celebrated the child on Facebook will forfeit her share of her husbands pension after a Johannesburg court, South Africa, ruled that awarding her half would amount to an undue benefit and humiliation for the husband.The couple married in community of property in January 2011. The wife instituted divorce proceedings in August 2024, asking for the dissolution of the marriage and an equal division of the joint estate. While both parties agreed the marriage had irretrievably broken down, the husband asked the South Gauteng High Court to deny her 50% of his pension payout from the Municipal Gratuity Fund after it emerged she was involved with his friend and had a baby with him.According to his testimony, the husband discovered the relationship and chased her away from the marital home because he found the situation intolerable. He also said he had supported the family financially throughout the marriage while his wife did not work, later learning she and his friend were expecting a child after seeing a Facebook post about her baby shower.In its assessment, the court noted that the party seeking forfeiture must show the other would be unduly enriched if no forfeiture order is made. Under section 9 of the Divorce Act, a court may consider the duration of the marriage, the circumstances leading to its breakdown, and any substantial misconduct.Judge Noluntu Bam said: What I regard as misconduct is not only the plaintiffs involvement with a third party but the act of procreating with a third party and then publicising the birth by posting messages of her baby shower on Facebook. That must have humiliated the defendant. The combination of all these events amounts to misconduct.The judge accepted that although the husband provided financially, there is a whole system that runs in the background to make most family homes stable, and that, as a stay-at-home mother, the wife had contributed to the household through childcare and domestic support.However, the court found that in light of the breakdown of the marriage and the nature of the wifes new relationship, she would be unduly benefited if awarded 50% of the pension. It concluded that her public announcement of her baby shower compounded the misconduct and humiliation and granted the husbands application, ordering that she forfeit her half of the pension.The post Court blocks cheating housewife from accessing husband’s pension benefit appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.