Mr Zulu approached our office to assist him with a divorce, where the parties have minor children. The divorce between Mr and Mrs Zulu is acrimonious, and Mrs Zulu has refused to allow Mr Zulu to have any contact with the minor children.
In order to assist Mr Zulu to secure contact with his minor children pending the finalisation of the divorce, and an enquiry by the Office of the Family Advocate, we brought a Rule 43 Application on behalf of Mr Zulu.
A Rule 43 in the High Court provides an interim measure to help an applicant, in a timeous manner, to seek relief on one or more of the following grounds :
- Interim care or contact with the child;
- Maintenance for the wife and/or children;
- Enforcing certain payments, such as for the bond on the matrimonial home, vehicles, school fees, medical aid premiums and even deposits on new accommodation and relocation costs;
- Interim contribution towards the costs of the divorce and legal fees; and/or
A Rule 43 Application deals with many of the issues that will ultimately be dealt with in the final divorce action, but is an interim solution. An extremely acrimonious divorce can take many years to finalise and spouses need to be safeguarded during the divorce process.
Mr Zulu was successful in his Rule 43 Application. We obtained an interim Order allowing Mr Zulu to exercise care and contact with his minor children every alternate weekend and overnight contact every Wednesday.
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Author – Kate Bailey – Hill
