Mungo Soggot
A SUPREME Court judge has been reported to the chief justice after ordering a leading campaigner for gender equality to adopt her husband’s name before he would grant her a divorce.
Loretta Jacobus, the African National Congress MPL who chairs Gauteng province’s committee on gender equality, says she was stunned and “disgusted” when Judge Geoff Leveson told her to change the name on her divorce application papers to that of her husband – Antonio Bastardo Ibanez.
Jacobus’s lawyers sent a letter of complaint to Transvaal Judge President Frikkie Eloff, who replied that he was powerless to interfere. “Judge Leveson is master in his court, and I have no say in the rulings made by him,” Eloff said.
“The difficulty raised by Judge Leveson, as I understand the position, is that anyone who might be interested in having sight of the record of the divorce proceedings would look for the record in Ibanez v Ibanez … Whether that is sound is not for me to say.”
The lawyers then approached the then chief justice Michael Corbett. He passed the matter to his successor, Ismail Mahomed, who takes over in Bloemfontein this month.
Jacobus says several women in the divorce court had a hard time the day she was there, last August. She told the Mail & Guardian that when one woman was asked why she wanted a divorce she said: “It is not working.” She says Leveson responded: “What’s not working -the fridge, the stove, the microwave?”
In the letter to the chief justice, Jacobus’s lawyer says her client believed she had been a “victim of sexism at the hands of Judge Leveson which, in the circumstances, amounted to an abuse of judicial power.
“I do not suggest that Judge Leveson’s petty abuse of his judicial powers should lead to his removal from office.
“I do, however, request that you consider whether his conduct amounts to misconduct in terms of the constitution …
“Should Judge Leveson be allowed to continue with impunity to act out his chauvinist prejudices on any woman who has exercised her entitlement never to adopt her husband’s name?”
In the initial letter to Eloff the lawyer said that Leveson had sent Jacobus to the back of the queue when she refused to switch her name. Divorce proceedings at the Rand Supreme Court take place on a “conveyor belt” roll on Fridays, with judges taking turns to preside.
Jacobus’s advocate told Leveson there was no legal reason for Jacobus to change her name, citing the Births, Deaths and Registries Act of 1992.
“Notwithstanding the above, Mr Justice Leveson was adamant that should the plaintiff want a divorce, an amendment would have to be effected to reflect the plaintiff’s name as Ibanez,” says the letter of complaint.
“The plaintiff finally consented to the amendment, despite her misgivings, as she had been waiting the entire morning and it had become apparent that she would not get divorced if she refused to do so.”
Leveson told the M&G that only Eloff was in a position to comment.