‘Married’ for more than 16 years to a man she has never met, a woman has turned to the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) in a bid to set the record straight that she is in fact not married.

A Pretoria News report says the woman said she only discovered about four years ago that she was married.

She previously lost her ID and tried to apply for another. Both she and the Wits Law Clinic – which has been assisting her – have since tried to resolve the matter with Home Affairs, but to no avail.

As the woman is married in community of property to one Chao Chen, she cannot obtain any state benefits without her ID.

She stated in an affidavit that, as she had full-blown AIDS and TB, she urgently needed medical help from the state. The department did not submit an affidavit last week to the court to set out its defence.

The woman, meanwhile, handed a marriage certificate to the court on a Home Affairs letterhead. It showed that she had been married to Chen in March 2004, in Port Elizabeth.

While unaware of her marriage status for all these years, she told the court that she discovered this fact in March 2016, when she tried to get a new ID.

Neither she nor the Wits Clinic could locate Chen through social media, and it is not known where he is.

The law, however, has to follow its course and, before the court can declare that no legal marriage exists between her and Chen, he must be served with the application.

As no ordinary service could take place because his whereabouts are unknown, Judge Cassim Sardiwalla ordered this be done by attaching a copy of her application to the notice board at the court and publishing the notice in a national newspaper.

Full Pretoria News report