A Mamelodi woman is fighting to save her home after her estranged husband sold it without her knowledge and left her and their children in a dire position.
Mokoto Nkoane told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria that she only learned that the house was sold after the buyer, Rambo Mathabathe, came to the property in July 2022 and told her the house belonged to him and he wanted to move in.
She told Mathabathe that the house was sold fraudulently because it was part of a joint estate following her marriage in community of property with Masese Nkoane.
She added that they have been living in the house as a family since 2009.
Mathabathe turned to the Mamelodi Magistrate Court to evict Nkoane and her children, including a 12-year-old minor.
The Magistrate made a finding that the eviction of Nkoane and her children would not render them homeless, therefore, their eviction was just and equitable.
The eviction was granted against Nkoane and she was given 30 days to vacate the property.
However, she refused to vacate the property and through her lawyers, she told Mathabathe that the sale was done without her consent and therefore she won’t leave the property.
She then approached the high court to overturn the ruling made by the Magistrate.
In her application, she added that her husband left her financially destitute because she was paying off a loan that she took out for him and only finished paying it in August 2022.
She also been struggling to take care of their children without his financial support.
She said her husband left the matrimonial home in her absence and took 85% of the furniture with him.
After discovering that he sold the house, she tried to get an order to freeze his accounts unfortunately the State attorney from Legal Aid failed to show up in court.
She subsequently filed for divorce.
Responding to the allegations that she was not residing at the property at the time of the sale, she explained that it was possible that Mathabathe came to view the house while she was at work.
In his reply, Mathabathe said he was currently paying the bond for the house and should not be affected by domestic affairs of the estranged couple.
He said he legally bought the house in March 2022 and in August, it was registered under his name.
He said even asked the estate agent about a woman occupying the house, and the estate agent said he knew nothing about the woman. Mathabathe said he believes that the woman and the children only came after he bought the house.
He added that Nkoane had an option of suing her husband for half of the proceeds of the house.
Two judges who presided over the matter, Judge Luleka Flatela and Judge Mandlenkosi Motha, said it was not clear how the Magistrate concluded that there was no risk of homelessness whereas Nkoane presented undisputed evidence that she was poor and could not even afford to maintain her children financially.
“The learned Magistrate cherry-picked the evidence and did not assess the evidence in totality,” the judgment read.
The matter was sent back to the Magistrate court for an urgent inquiry regarding whether eviction would lead Nkoane and her to homelessness.
sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za
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