If you haven’t watched The Tinder Swindler on Netflix yet, you are in the minority. It is the runaway streaming sensation of the year so far, reaching no. 1 in 92 countries, including South Africa. While it’s easy to say, “how could those women be so stupid?”, the reality is that women…and men…are defrauded emotionally […]
2021 marks 30 years of Global 16 Days of Activism As long as I’ve been practising law, and as long as I’ve published this blog, I’ve been writing about violence against women (VAW), gender-based violence (GBV), domestic violence, domestic abuse, and a raft of other terms that basically refer to the same thing. Physical violence […]
What the law says Sadly, one of the causes of divorce or relationship breakdown is domestic abuse, whether physical or emotional. The situation is traumatic enough on its own, but when there are children of the marriage or partnership, it can become very complicated. Numerous competing rights need to be balanced. How do you go […]
What changes are in the newly published Domestic Violence Bill? In our practice, we see at first hand the extent of the gender-based violence epidemic in our country. It is a factor in divorce, and we are often involved in securing protection orders for women threatened by a potentially or actually violent partner. So we […]
We’ve written about divorcing with dignity in the past, something we think is important for everyone involved, not least the children of the union. Sadly, dignity often goes out the window when a marriage ends painfully. In this case that came before the Gauteng High Court last month, it appears that dignity disappeared before the […]
It’s time to free yourself from your manipulative former husband, says Mariella Frostrup Reprinted from the Guardian – 2020-09-06 This reader’s dilemma from the UK’s Guardian newspaper caught our eye. It is not uncommon for divorced co-parents to continue in an emotionally dependent and unhealthy relationship. The constant contact of raising children can make it […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed some silver linings. Justice minister Ronald Lamola announces steps to make it easier to secure uncontested divorces, protection orders and maintenance orders, and measures to increase the fight against domestic violence. Reprinted from Dispatch Live, By Andisiwe Makinana – 2020-07-23 New laws will provide for online applications for uncontested divorces, child […]
Lockdown can be a terrifying ordeal if a woman is confined with an abusive partner 15 May, 2020: Important update to level 4 regulations: When the level 4 regulations were announced, they included the movement of persons and goods across provincial. metropolitan or district boundaries, including: Relocation to a new place of residence The movement […]
