The South Gauteng High Court in Joburg threw out an ex-appeal husband's because he didn't want to share his pension fund, two properties, and furniture with his ex-wife after she cheated on him.
The husband and wife were married and shared all of their property. During their marriage, they had three children.
The husband was a teacher and made about R34 000 a month, while the wife worked as a general worker and was paid R2 500 every two weeks.
After seven years of marriage, the wife filed for divorce in 2017. She said her husband was abusive, used to come home late at night, and had at least two affairs that she knew about.
The wife said that her depression was caused by the way her ex-husband treated her, and that's why she was in therapy.
The husband filed a counterclaim, saying that they had never had a healthy marriage and that they never talked about anything important.
He said that in 2015, she sent him a love message through WhatsApp that she meant for her cheating partner.
The husband also said that his ex-wife never did anything important for the marriage, since all of their assets were the result of his hard work. So, he went to court to get an order that she give up the benefits of the marriage.
But the Regional Court said no and ordered that the joint estate be split.
Then, he decided to appeal the decision. In his new application, his lawyer said that the Regional Court went in the wrong direction when it said that both people were equally to blame for the breakup of the marriage.
His lawyer also said that the court should have said that the wife's cheating was the serious wrongdoing that caused the breakup.
However, Judge ML Twala did not agree. He found that the WhatsApp message had been talked about and resolved, and that the couple had gone on with their marriage.
Judge Twala also said that the husband did not start divorce proceedings based on the WhatsApp message, and his counter-claim only vaguely said that the wife had extramarital affairs.
Twala says that "substantial or gross misconduct" is not the only thing that matters when deciding whether or not to take away benefits from a marriage based on "community of property."
Twala also said that the ex-wife had proof that the breakup of the marriage was caused by the fact that the ex-husband came home late at night and slept out some weekends.
"I believe, therefore, that the court a quo did not go in the wrong direction when it decided that in this case, both parties were to blame for the breakup of the marriage," Twala said.