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A civil marriage needs to be dissolved by a court.
Grounds for divorce
 You can only get a divorce if you show the court that there has been an "irretrievable breakdown" of the marriage or that one of the spouses is mentally ill or continuously unconscious.
Irretrievable breakdown means that the couple can no longer live together and there is no reasonable chance of them resolving their differences. Proof of this can include evidence showing that:
- The couple have not lived together for a while.
- One partner cheated on the other.
- One partner left the other.
- One partner abused the other.
- The couple no longer love each other.
You can get a divorce if your partner has been institutionalised for mental illness for at least two years and doctors don't think that they will ever recover.
You can get divorced if your partner has been unconscious for at least six months and doctors don't believe that they will ever recover.
The divorce process
If you want to ask the court to issue a divorce you need to prepare a summons dealing with:
- Who will have custody of the children.
- How the parent who does not have custody will access the children.
- Who will receive maintenance, how much it will be and how and when it will be paid.
- How your property will be divided up.
If you and your partner can reach a settlement agreement before the summons is issued, this will make the process much quicker and easier. If you reach an agreement, you should write it down and sign it. This consent paper should then be attached to the divorce summons.
A hearing date will be set. At this hearing, the judge will ask questions to confirm the information in the summons. Once everything is settled, a divorce order will be granted.
If you use the Family Court instead of a High Court your divorce may go through more quickly and more cheaply.
Dissolving a marriage in terms of African Customary Law
Customary marriages are similar to civil marriages in that the court must issue the divorce order and the divorce will only be granted if there are grounds for divorce (that is irretrievable breakdown, mental illness or continuous unconsciousness).
The parties can decide the terms of the divorce and then the judge will issue the relevant orders regarding custody and maintenance. If the court has to decide on these matters it will take into account any arrangements that may have been made in terms of customary law.
The wife's family may have to return all or part of the lobola to the husband's family, unless the husband publicly rejected his wife for no reason at all.
Dissolving a Muslim or Hindu Marriage
If a man and woman were married by an imam in the Muslim religion or a priest in the Hindu religion, they are not married in terms of the civil law. They can then divorce without going to court but they must follow the rules of their religion.
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