Guys, please prioritize this if you are about to start lobola negotiations: draft your ante nuptial contracts BEFORE the negotiations take place. I cannot stress this enough.

If you do not have the contract and the families finalize the negotiations then you are going to be married in community of property. Please avoid celebrating lobola negotiations and then waiting until your “wedding celebration” to sign/register the marriage.

The court is saying that once all customs have been observed then you are customarily married. Signing at a later date does not mean that a customary marriage does not exist in the meantime. In fact, some customs may even be waived by the actions of the parties/ families involved

Some attorneys (myself included) are now starting to ask whether or not there was a lobola celebration “lunch”. That lunch between the families is enough to establish that an agreement to marry was in fact reached, meaning a marriage was concluded. Meaning we can’t now draft ANC

This means you must go to High Court to apply for marriage regime to be changed from in community to out of community. A customary marriage that has not yet been registered at Home Affairs is still a marriage!

It probably does not mean anything now, but God forbid your partner dies before “signing at the big wedding”. You will have a tough time trying to say “we were not married yet”. The court is saying you were married from when all protocol was observed at finalization of lobola.

I mean, in the “meantime” your partner is getting into all these debts!!!! The creditor is going to do their best to show that a customary marriage exists and can therefore claim from the “joint estate” which essentially means from the “solvent” spouse. Guys, like. Please!

This is why I am forever emphasizing customary vs civil. If there is no other way to remember it then remember that civil ke for makgowa. They don’t have all this customary red tape!

Video explaining the importance of drafting ANC before negotiations (to be safe).
Link:
Don’t forget to Subscribe