Bertus Preller

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The Factual Matrix: A Long-Separated Couple and the Quest for a “Clean” Divorce The applicant, TSY, and the respondent, LEY, married in community of property on 27 July 1989. The marriage endured for 22 years before the parties separated in 2011, producing two children who had both reached adulthood by the time these proceedings were…

Factual Matrix: From Customary Union to Civil Marriage and the Antenuptial Contract Conundrum The applicant, VVC, and the first respondent, JRM, entered into a customary marriage on 5 August 2011. As no antenuptial contract preceded this union, the marriage was by operation of law in community of property in accordance with the default regime established…

Factual Matrix: A Marriage Breakdown Complicated by Accrual and Maintenance Claims The matter before Wille, J concerned a marriage of over three decades that had irretrievably broken down, but in circumstances that presented complex financial and procedural challenges. The first applicant (the plaintiff) and the respondent (the defendant) married on 21 November 1991 out of…

Background and Factual Matrix: The Domestic Violence Warrant and Property Sale Dispute The matter before Wilson J arose from an application by JM, the respondent, for leave to appeal against an interim interdict granted on an urgent basis in favour of VM, the applicant. The parties are former spouses whose divorce has given rise to…

The Factual Matrix: A Pattern of Misconduct and Financial Delinquency The parties in this matter were married in community of property on 16 December 2000. The marriage endured for approximately 24 years, producing one major child. However, the picture painted by the evidence revealed a marriage characterised by violence, neglect and financial irresponsibility on the…

Factual Background: Extra-Marital Relationship and the Birth of a Third Child The parties in this matter were married in community of property on 10 January 2011. Their marriage, which lasted approximately nine years before they ceased living together, produced two minor children during the subsistence of the marriage. By August 2024, the plaintiff issued a…

Factual Background: From Geneva to Gauteng – The Retention of a Minor Child The factual matrix in this matter presents a textbook illustration of how international child retention disputes arise from the breakdown of cross-border relationships. Ms MV, a dual South African and Italian citizen, and Mr VL, an Italian national who later obtained Swiss…

Factual Background and Procedural History The matter in J.M.M and Another v Cara Dorothy Masureik and Others arose from protracted and unresolved divorce proceedings between the first applicant and her husband, to whom she was married out of community of property with the inclusion of the accrual system. Despite the divorce having been instituted as…

Introduction The Western Cape High Court recently delivered an important judgment clarifying the application of passport and citizenship requirements to minor children travelling internationally. In A.T.A v L.A.A (2025/246332) [2025] ZAWCHC 597 (19 December 2025), Da Silva Salie J addressed fundamental misconceptions about section 26B of the South African Citizenship Act 88 of 1995 and…

Introduction In high conflict childcare and contact disputes, lawyers sometimes align so closely with their clients’ positions that they become virtual proxies for parental animosity. This “over-identification” with clients, even when the client’s stance is objectively unreasonable or harmful can have far-reaching ethical, relational, and professional consequences. Nowhere are these consequences more profound than in…