State Theatre CEO has to pay her ex R1m

Pretoria State Theatre CEO Xoliswa Ngema will have to fork out more than R1-million in legal fees and is in danger of having her assets attached, following a high court order. The High Court in Johannesburg on Wednesday issued the order following a 2009 court case in which she instituted divorce proceedings against MTN CEO Sifiso Dabengwa.

Dabengwa denied the two were ever married, claiming that while he had paid R20000 in lobolo to her family, the couple had never had a traditional wedding ceremony. Ngema argued that he had given her a R90000 diamond ring and that they were married according to customary law.

The relationship soured in 2007 and she applied for a divorce, claiming R35000 in maintenance and half Dabengwa's estate. Ngema withdrew the case in January last year but then attempted to reinstate it. However, the application was refused and she was ordered to pay costs.

In January she was served with a warrant of execution to pay Dabengwa R785192.56 with interest from November 2010 to the date of payment.

She appealed, asking for temporary suspension of the warrant pending the outcome of the second divorce action .

Her legal counsel, Ike Motlaung, argued that his client could not afford to pay the cost order or fund the second court action.

Acting Judge G P Malindi found that Ngema had ''no prospects of success" in her pending second divorce action.

He said based on evidence presented in court regarding the validity of the ''marriage", he had concluded that if the payment of lobolo had accompanied a traditional ceremony, the two would have registered it under the Marriage Act .

''In the circumstances, I am unable to order that the warrant of execution be held in abeyance pending the doomed second divorce action," he said.

Judge Malindi said the interests of justice required that Dabengwa be paid the money owed to him.

Motlaung declined to comment on the matter. Billy Gundelfinger, Dabengwa's attorney, said he had been instructed to proceed with the warrant of execution.