High Court judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi slammed “bush lawyers” who lie to the court in order to obtain fraudulent orders. Justice Mathonsi was ruling in a case in which a husband Khumbulani Jubane, divorced his wife Thandazile (nee Khumalo) without her knowledge after abusing the procedure for substituted service of summons by claiming that he had no knowledge of his wife’s whereabouts. Jubane and Thandizile had a another dispute over the custody of their 5-year old daughter.
Justice Mathonsi ruled
This is a person (husband) who has lied and misled this court before as a result of which he obtained a divorce order by false pretences. His story therefore has no evidentiary value and cannot be relied upon. I am satisfied that the application for rescission of judgment is meritable and therefore that the respondent (husband) cannot benefit from his ill-gotten order. The applicant(wife) has a right to sole custody until an order regulating the custody has been made
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