A mother of three from Otjiwarongo in her late thirties finds herself faced with a financial crisis due to her divorce hearing from her husband of eight years being postponed a fourth time.
This comes as minister of justice and labour relations Wise Immanuel on Friday said he would commence with the Dissolution of Marriages Act, 2024 by today.
Once this act becomes law, it would make the process of divorce easier for those who cannot afford legal representation.
“Both the judiciary and legislative drafting team [should] finalise the rules relevant to the commenced act, or else, he (the minister) will proceed to commence the concerned act by 25 August,” an internal memo from the minister’s office issued on Friday reads.
Immanuel also commenced with a part of the law that empowers the judge president of the High Court to make High Court rules without having to consult the head of state.
The minister said he opted for this to enable the judge president of the High Court to approve and gazette the High Court rules necessary for the easy implementation of the act.
Although the name of the woman is known to this publication, The Namibian opted to keep her anonymous to protect her children.
The mother filed for divorce in August 2024 after years of financial and emotional abuse. She and her husband had agreed to separate, but legal delays have left her struggling.
“I never knew that getting married is a thorn you are planting for yourself in the flesh,” she says.
Despite months of calls to her lawyer, the deputy sheriff failed to serve her husband in time for the hearing on 8 July.
The hearing was then postponed to September.
With no stable home, the woman has been forced to move from one rental place to another. “We are now living in a garage at the mercy of my colleague. But for how long?” she asks.
In her desperation to make ends meet, she he has taken out loans with high interest rates that now stands at N$15 000.
She hopes a pending divorce settlement of N$200 000 would bring relief.
Her case is not isolated.
A Windhoek medical doctor also describes the divorce process as “tedious” and unfair to men.
“I believe the law mostly favours women. Although our divorce process is not finalised yet, I was issued a restriction order barring me from seeing my own child, because my wife claimed I do not contribute financially and that I physically abused her,” he says.
“I am saddened by the potential outcome of our divorce because so far it seems as if she is above the law, when in actual fact she is the one who abuses me both emotionally and physically, but because I am a man, I am not heard,” he says.
Divorce lawyer Carol Williams, who has 18 years’ experience in divorce cases, says a typical divorce should take about four months.
If adultery is admitted, it could even be finalised in one month, she says.
“This not only protects the divorce process, resulting in higher legal fees, but you would also have the emotional trauma of having to relive in court by oral evidence of all instances of abuse,” she says.
Williams says people often assume they are entitled to all assets, which causes further disputes.
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