Widows get law changed to allow them both a portion of late husband’s home
A Cape Town man’s two elderly widows have succeeded in changing the law of the land.Amina and Farieda Harnaker went to the High Court in Cape Town when the deeds office refused to register a portion of their late husband’s home in each of their names.On Thursday‚ Judge Andre le Grange said a clause in the 64-year-old Wills Act referring to a "surviving spouse" did not pass constitutional muster.He said the following sentence should be added to the clause: "A ‘surviving spouse’ includes every husband and wife of a de facto monogamous and polygynous Muslim marriage solemnised under the religion of Islam."Farieda Harnaker said the whole family was "very happy" with the judgment‚ which has to be confirmed by the Constitutional Court.The dispute was sparked by the death in 2014 of Osman Harnaker. In 1957‚ he married Amina under Muslim rites‚ and seven years later he married Farieda in the same way.In 1982‚ when he applied for a home loan to buy a house in Crawford for him‚ his wives‚ the...
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