A Mamelodi woman is battling to save her home after her estranged husband sold it without her knowledge, leaving her and their children in a difficult situation.
Mokoto Nkoane told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria that she only found out the house was sold when the buyer, Rambo Mathabathe, came to the property in July 2022 and told her it belonged to him and he wanted to move in.
According to Mathabathe, the house was sold fraudulently because it was part of a joint estate from her marriage to Masese Nkoane.
She stated that they had been living in the residence as a family since 2009.
Mathabathe petitioned the Mamelodi Magistrate Court to remove Nkoane and her children, including a 12-year-old juvenile.
The Magistrate determined that Nkoane and her children’s eviction was just and equitable, as it would not make them homeless.
Nkoane was granted an eviction and given 30 days to depart the premises.
However, she refused to quit the land and informed Mathabathe, through her lawyers, that the deal was made without her agreement and that she will not leave.
She then petitioned the High Court to overturn the Magistrate’s verdict.
In her application, she stated that her spouse left her financially destitute because she was repaying a debt she took out for him, which she would only complete paying in August 2022.
She has also struggled to care for their children without his financial help.
She said that during her absence, her husband departed the matrimonial house and took 85% of the furnishings with him.
After discovering that he had sold the house, she attempted to obtain an order freezing his accounts, but the State attorney from Legal Aid failed to appear in court.
She eventually filed for divorce.
In response to charges that she was not residing at the home at the time of sale, she stated that Mathabathe may have come to examine the house when she was at work.
Mathabathe said that he was currently paying the bond on the residence and would not be harmed by the estranged couple’s domestic troubles.
He claimed to have officially purchased the house in March 2022, and it was registered in his name in August.
He even asked the estate agent about a woman who lived in the house, and the guy stated he didn’t know anything about her. Mathabathe claims that the wife and children only arrived after he purchased the residence.
He said that Nkoane might sue her spouse for half of the house’s proceeds.
Two judges who presided over the case, Judge Luleka Flatela and Judge Mandlenkosi Motha, said it was unclear how the Magistrate concluded that there was no risk of homelessness when Nkoane presented undisputed evidence that she was poor and could not even afford to support her children financially.
“The learned Magistrate cherry-picked the evidence and did not assess the evidence in totality,” the judge’s ruling stated.
The case was sent to the Magistrate’s Court for an urgent investigation into whether eviction will cause Nkoane and her to become homeless.
