Court nullifies marriage based on lies
Pini Bothoko | Tuesday November 15, 2022 06:00
Kentsheng Precious Rantutu was granted her wish to be freed from her marriage to Keabetswe Rantutu citing that the man is not who he claimed to be, he lied about being a medical doctor and also about his family background.
Passing judgment on the matter recently, Justice Gaolapelwe Ketlogetswe of the High Court said the duo got married in community of property on May 9, 2019, and on September 21 2021, Kentsheng approached the High Court seeking for their marriage to be declared null and void.
Judge Ketlogetswe said Kentsheng pleaded with the court to order her husband to pay alimony in her favour in an amount to be determined by the court. Moreover, she asked the court to order him to pay the sum of P140,000 which she alleged is an amount he fraudulently took from her under the pretext that he was going to invest that money in some business, which he had expected they would be ‘rewarded handsomely’, an application that he (Keabetswe) opposed.
Addressing this matter, Justice Ketlogetswe said it should be clear that the P140,000 that Kentsheng was claiming from her husband falls squarely on a claim based on damages.
“Kentsheng is not claiming reimbursement of money paid as a loan, she is basing her claim on fraud, which needs to be proved by way of evidence before any determination could be made as to the extent of the fraud if any and the damages arising therefrom,” Ketlogetswe said.
Furthermore, he stated that Kentsheng’s request for the annulment of their marriage is founded on a number of allegations because she had stated that when they fell in love he allegedly made false representations concerning himself and his family background.
The court further revealed that Kentsheng also stated that he told her that his mother was from Serowe while his father was a Mokwena originating from Rustenburg, South Africa and that the family had recently relocated to Botswana from South Africa. In addition, Justice Ketlogetswe said she also stated that he lied to her that his family were business people and he was their only male child while his family has no South African connections nor are they well-off business people.
“Kentsheng also stated that he had told her that he was a Harvard University educated graduate having studied medicine. In her founding affidavit, she stated that not only has he never been to Harvard University but that ‘he has never been inside an aeroplane as a passenger’. She added that he also told her that he turned down an opportunity to work at Baragwanath Hospital in South Africa and instead opted to pursue his passion of being a DJ at Radio Bop in South Africa,” Justice Ketlogetswe said.
Additionally, he said in her founding affidavit she disclosed that he also told her that before they met he had been offered a job as a medical doctor in Russia, but that he had since turned down that opportunity so that he could be with her.
“Kentsheng avers that this was yet another untruth he told her as he had no qualifications as a medical doctor. There are many other things which Kentsheng says Keabetswe told her concerning himself, which turned out to be false, which I do not think it will serve any useful purpose to repeat them in this judgment and he has not sought to refute the serious allegations of fraudulent or false allegations levelled against him,” he said.
However, Justice Ketlogetswe said Keabetswe raised the issue that Kentsheng’s application does not meet and satisfy the threshold set out in Section 22 of the Matrimonial Causes Act concerned with the annulment of marriages. Responding to Keabetswe’s claims, Ketlogetswe stated that he has not denied the allegations of fraud laid against him and has not denied that he induced Kentsheng into believing that he was a medical doctor.
In conclusion, the judge declared Keabetswe and Kentsheng’s marriage null and void, the application for payment of P140,000 damages was struck out, while Keabetswe was ordered to pay the costs of the application.