A South African yoga teacher living in Switzerland has been frustrated by an alleged fraudulent marriage that has prevented her from marrying her fiancé.

The Department of Home Affairs said Michelle Banda is married to a Nigerian man but she said she has never met him.

The ceremony was also supposedly held in January 2003 in Pretoria – which she has never visited. 

The Citizen reports her attempts to rescind her marriage have been in vain.

In 2005, she lost her ID in Mmabatho and was issued with a replacement. However, little did she know she was married to a Chidiebere Emmanuel by that time.

And her ‘husband’ assumed her surname after the ‘marriage’ and her name is misspelt on the marriage certificate.

‘The Department of Home Affairs does not put any details of the husband. I have enquired about this, but was told it was not their practice to add details. So there is no way to identify the person by ID or passport number,’ she said. 

The department has been unable to produce the original or vault copy of the marriage certificate, which would list witnesses and presiding officials.

Her nightmare began last October when she sought a Letter of No Impediment, required from foreign authorities when South Africans want to get married in foreign countries.

The daughter of legendary former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper, Patson Banda, in March said she was supposed to get married to her fiancé in Switzerland.

Their wedding had to be postponed as she tries to get the fake marriage annulled.

Full report in The Citizen