|
Back to Index
Challenges
faced by women with unregistered marriages
Women
and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA)
August 23, 2011
In previous
articles, we have looked at different forms of marriage, the crime
of bigamy and the implications of marriage on inheritance. From
the different types of marriages discussed, the unregistered customary
law union poses the greatest challenge to widows.
E paid lobola
for D in 1991. The "marriage" despite not being registered
was a happy one. Three children were born of the union. E and D
acquired two houses in Mutare. They set up a bottle store and butchery
in E's rural home. They purchased two plots near Harare where
they were engaged in farming and animal husbandry. D who had a passion
for sewing with the help of E established a thriving clothes making
business that at its peak employed 40 people. E died suddenly in
a road accident. At the funeral, E's brother F became hostile
towards D for reasons that she could not understand. F demanded
that in all matters to do with the funeral, he had the final say.
F selected the funeral home, the coffin, the butchery where meat
was purchased, the bakery where bread was purchased and he also
kept the keys to all the motor vehicles. Two weeks after the funeral,
D visited the bank where they had joint accounts with E. She was
told that she needed to register the estate of her late husband
with the court. Upon visiting the court, she was told that the estate
could only be registered upon production of a death certificate.
Upon visiting the Birth and Death registry, she was advised that
she needed confirmation from at least two of E's relative
that indeed, she was married to him under customary law. Upon approaching
F, he told D that he would only write the affidavit if D undertook
to give up claims to all the property and businesses and also if
she agreed at the cleansing ceremony to be "inherited"
by him. F clandestinely obtained E's death certificate and
proceeded to register the estate at the court. The death certificate
indicated that E was single. D declared a dispute and at the court
hearing D could not produce proof that she was E's customary
law wife. Her father and uncle who received the lobola died in 2007
and 2008 respectively. Her mother had suffered a stroke and was
unable to speak. She did not have details of the "go-between".
Her cousins who were present at the ceremony had migrated and were
not interested in D's affairs. F stated in court that D just
came into the family but no lobola was paid. The family accepted
her because she had given birth and they ended up treating her as
E's wife but in reality she was just a girlfriend. The court
ruled that she was a mere girlfriend and she thus lost out on the
inheritance simply because she had no marriage certificate or proof
of the unregistered customary law union. She ended up being evicted
from the home she was staying.
D is not alone. There are many women who do not have marriage certificates
who are in similar situations where relatives of the late husband
deny all knowledge of them. Disinheritance also negatively affects
children.
We urge all women who get married under customary law to do the
following in the short term:
- Get the
written proof of the lobola agreement and keep a copy
- Get details
of the "go-between"
- Get affidavits
from their father or the person who acted as father to confirm
receiving lobola
- Get affidavits
from some persons who were present to confirm the lobola payment.
In the long
run:
WLSA strongly
recommends the harmonization of marriage laws in Zimbabwe and the
specific recognition of unregistered customary law unions as full
marriages.
Visit
the Women
and Law in Southern Africa fact
sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
