A woman struggles with divorcing a man she never met

Fraudulent marriages are a prevalent occurrence in our country- have you ever imagined being married to somebody you have never met?

A Soshanguve woman, Stompie Claudia Sithole holds the marriage certificate she got from the Home Affairs. 

This happened to Stompie Claudia Sithole of Soshanguve blog G, who found out that she was married to a man she has never met. This 45-year-old mother of three said that she lost her identity book in 2002 and applied for another one in 2008 only to find that she was married. She said that it took her six years to apply for another ID book because she was unemployed.

After finding out about her marriage, she visited the police station. " I went to the police station and I was given  an affidavit and I visited the Department of Home Affairs."

"I was told to go court and divorce the man." Sithole said that upon her visit to the court she was told that she cannot divorce somebody she has never met. She says that it has been ten years since she had pleaded with the DHA to help her cancel the marriage.

The marriage certificate of Stompie Sithole which she says is illegal

Sithole said that she lives with her step-parents in her father's house, with two of her kids and her grand-child. " It is not easy living with my step-parents because I get constant reminders that my peers are married and have their own houses," said Sithole. She said that she has done everything in her power to divorce this man and have her life back, but all her effort goes to waste.

We visited the Soshanguve Police station who said that they as the SAPS do not much power when it comes to identity theft and illegal marriages, even though they do get reports. She said: " What we normally do, we refer them to the DHA."

"It is very important that when you have misplaced your ID book or when it has been stolen

 you report it with immediate effect."

The DHA was not available for a comment in this story, after having sent an email that was not responded to, setting up an appointment with Thabo Mokgola of Home Affairs, calling him a countless times in a period of three weeks and going to the head office in Pretoria three times.