Justice Collins Newman granted divorce in 10 of 13 cases before him on Monday. He postponed two while another one was withdrawn. Justice Key Dingake granted divorce in nine of the 12 cases he heard. One was withdrawn, one postponed and the other struck from the roll.
Thirty cases are scheduled for next Monday. One of the court clerks said that sometimes the numbers exceed 30. “They are so many. Sometimes we listen to 35 or more. The cases are so many that they have to be divided between judges, but this coming Monday, Newman have thirty cases to attend to.”
Some of the couples are yet to come before court for division of estates. The major reasons brought before court by those seeking divorce are abusive behaviour.
by husbands, unbecoming behaviour by wives or husbands. In one of the cases last Monday, a woman sued for divorce because her husband absents himself persistently from home with no reasons. She said the husband refuses to spend his free time in his matrimonial home. Another woman decided to end her marriage to a secondary school teacher because it had broken down irretrievably.
The couple separated two years after their marriage. A woman who said the husband maliciously attacked her ran away from home and convinced the court that her marriage is broken beyond repair due to the man’s abusive behaviour.
