Judgement in love triangle on August 9

Tebogo Kgalemang
Correspondent | Friday June 3, 2011 00:00

Macheme is demanding P30,000 from Senai for loss of society and consortium of the deceased. Rick and Thabiso were married in community of property.

Macheme alleges that Senai committed adultery with his wife on many occasions in 2009. Macheme told the court that at one point, Senai, who is a soldier, called his colleagues to harass him.

'He made a false report to (army) officers about me in order to embarrass me when I was at my wife's home village in Malotwane,' he said.

However, Senai said he never knew that the deceased was married, hence he proposed marriage to her. 'At the time I proposed to marry her, she never told me she was already married,' he said.

Senai told the court that their relationship went on for a year and was 'public.' They even met each other's parents and relatives formally.

'I visited her parents frequently,' he said. 'Neither her mother nor siblings showed any disapproval of our relationship. They had all accepted it. 'Had I known she was married, I would not have engaged in a relationship with her and I would not have bothered introducing her to my family.'

Another reason he assumed the deceased was single was that she used 'the same surname as her mother', Senai said. 'All her documents were written 'Tshukudu,' not 'Macheme.''

He claims that he only came to know that the deceased was married to Macheme last year after Macheme called his parents and superiors at work complaining that he was wrecking his marriage.

Senai said when he confronted the woman he regarded as his fiancee about what Macheme had said, the deceased apologised to him saying she wanted to deal with issues in her marriage before telling him about it.Senai said he immediately terminated the relationship and by the time Macheme personally confronted him about the issue, the relationship had long ceased.

Under cross examination, Macheme's attorney, Thabiso Olatotse, asked Senai why he had never apologised to Macheme, then argued that Senai did not apologise to Macheme because it was not true that he did not know that the deceased was married to him.Banyatsi Mmekwa represented Senai.