A woman is trying get rid her first “husband”, a Pakistani national she has been married to for 10 years, but has never even met.
|||Durban - A Durban woman is at her wits’ end trying get rid of an unwanted first “husband” - a Pakistani national whom she has been married to for 10 years, but has never even met.
Kubashni Chetty, 31, of Silverglen, Chatsworth, said the marriage, the result of an apparent fraud committed without her knowledge, had brought her life to a near-standstill and made something as simple as opening a bank account impossible.
“Every time I go to the bank or a retailer to open an account, the system keeps on picking up my surname as Ahmed,” said Chetty.
In March 2003 Chetty married Heston Ankiah, but never changed her ID, which has her maiden name, Chetty. According to Chetty, the pastor had gone to register their marriage, and had come back jokingly saying she was married to a Pakistani named Ahmed, but the problem had been resolved.
“My husband and I never went to actually verify that it has been sorted, since we had the marriage certificate,” she said.
It was only in 2005 when they lost the original marriage certificate that things took a turn for the worse. Despite having a certified copy of the original, along with her ID, Chetty said, she was told her marriage to Ankiah was not on the system - only her marriage to Ahmed.
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I have been requesting assistance from Home Affairs in Umgeni for over five years, and still nothing has been done,” she said.
Chetty said she had been receiving payments from her late father’s provident fund for her children, but since March that had stopped because they had yet to receive a copy of her ID with the surname Ahmed, as required by the fund.
A Home Affairs official, who was not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed the marriage was registered in 2003, and that although Chetty had a marriage certificate, it was issued by the pastor and not the department.
Home Affairs acting provincial manager Albert Matsaung said they had contacted Chetty and had forwarded all the relevant documentation to the head office to assist in investigating her first marriage.
“Should it be proven that the marriage is false or fraudulent it will be removed from the system, and should it be discovered that she consented to the marriage, prosecutions will take place,” said Matsaung.
Daily News