NEW GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE

MBABANE – Sexual perversion, religion, mental and physical cruelty could soon form reasons for a person to get out of their marriage.

This is according to the newly-proposed Marriage Bill of 2017, which now carries five instances where couples can seek for a dissolution of their marriage.

Currently, the country uses the Marriage Act of 1964, where the only grounds for divorce are malicious desertion and adultery.
The new Bill, which was drafted by the Attorney General’s office, is yet to be presented by the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Edgar Hillary, both in Cabinet and Parliament for scrutiny and adoption, and some of the provisions may change.

Section 46 of the proposed law states that a marriage in the case of a civil union can be dissolved by the court, which could issue a decree of divorce on the grounds of the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage.
The proposed Bill reads that the court shall, without limiting the right of the court to accept other facts, accept any of the new reasons as evidence of irretrievable breakdown of a marriage.

Section 48 (2b) says the evidence of sexual perversion on the part of the respondent could be presented in court.    
Perversion, according to the Oxford dictionary, has been defined or described as sexual behaviours that are considered particularly abnormal, repulsive or obsessive. However, due to some of the graphic examples given, this publication cannot repeat them for ethical reasons.
The proposed law further gives a gateway out of the marriage to a person who feels that the change of religion by their partner is unacceptable or cannot be tolerated.

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