Former Mthatha Judge Duncan Dukada’s widow Hlombekazi Dukada will get half of most of the assets accumulated during their 40-year marriage despite their holding separate estates in terms of their marriage property regime, notes a Saturday Dispatch report.

The Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha) ruled that Dukada and his wife had formed a tacit partnership agreement during 1990 in respect of their family businesses and that they had conducted their growing empire – which included hardware stores, a bookshop, tiling and supermarket franchises – as equal partners until the death of Dukada last year.

For that reason, said Judge Richard Brookes, Hlombekazi was entitled to half of the assets of the partnership or, alternatively, to the payment by his estate of half the net value of the partnership assets. The report notes the judgment is important in terms of how property accrued during a marriage may be divided in the event of the death of one of the spouses, even if they were married out community of property as in the case of the Dukada couple.

The pair were married out of community of property in 1976. But despite much of the property accumulated during their marriage being in the name of Dukada, Brookes said that in reality, half of it belonged to Hlombekazi by virtue of the tacit business partnership they had enjoyed.

Full Saturday Dispatch report (subscription needed)