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I have been married to my husband for more than 20 years. We were both in our early twenties when we were married according to customary rites as well as civilly out of community of property. Since then my husband has built up a few successful businesses and a few years ago we created our own post-nuptial agreement to confirm that we see ourselves as married in community of property. Unfortunately, we have fallen on troubled times and wish to get divorced. My husband says we are still married out of community of property as the agreement we signed late is invalid. Is this true?

The romantic date has been set. She said: yes!  Now what? 

An Ante Nuptial Contract is an agreement entered into between two parties prior to their marriage and is often referred to as a “prenuptial” or an ANC.

One of the main differences between the abovementioned is that the one is executed before a marriage and the other after the marriage.

My Husband and I were married out of community of property excluding the accrual system, we are now in the process of divorce and I intend to approach the Court to rectify our anti-nuptial agreement to include the accrual system on the basis that just before our marriage my husband and I agreed thereto verbally. Can this be done?

There are 3 options availible when getting married:

I am getting married this year in terms of customary law. My fiancé and I are both professional persons and want to be married out of community of property so we can each manage our own estates. How can we go about doing this?

I am to be married according to my Islamic religion. Although I understand the practices of my faith, I’m not sure how my marriage is viewed from a legal perspective in South Africa and what protection I have. Can you explain how the law will view my marriage as compared to a normal civil marriage?

  “I am a minor girl aged 14 and recently fell pregnant with my boyfriend of the age of 16. Our parents decided that we should get married. Can I at this young age get married and what is required in order to comply with the law.”

Distribution of assets from deceased estates before winding up

I’m divorced and have been paying maintenance for my ex and my two children for a number of years. My eldest son has now finished school and wants to go to university. My ex is now insisting that I must contribute to his university studies as part of my maintenance obligations. Surely now that he is an adult, my responsibility to maintain has stopped?

My mother and father were married in community of property. They often joked by saying that they could get out of any contract as long as only one of them signed because the law required that both of them must always sign. As a business owner, through the years I’ve always wondered whether this is correct and how careful a business needs to be when dealing with couples married in community of property?