{"id":837,"date":"2019-10-05T09:15:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T09:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marumeandfuridzo.com\/?p=837"},"modified":"2019-11-20T17:33:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T17:33:59","slug":"grounds-for-divorce-in-zimbabwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.marumeandfuridzo.com\/grounds-for-divorce-in-zimbabwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Grounds For Divorce In Zimbabwe"},"content":{"rendered":"
The law on divorce in Zimbabwe is governed by the Matrimonial Causes Act (Chapter 5:13)<\/strong><\/a>. The Act changed the law on divorce as it was prior to 1986. Before this \u2018new Act\u201d divorce was granted on the \u2018guilty principle\u2019. This meant that in every divorce matter there had to be a guilty party and an innocent party. Because of the guilty principle maintenance could only be claimed by the innocent party.<\/p>\n The \u2018new law\u2019 changed the guilty principle and introduced the \u2018no-fault divorce\u2019. There is no need for the court to look at who is at fault or who is innocent. Essentially even the \u2018guilty\u2019 party can set up his or her own fault and successfully sue for divorce.<\/p>\n Section 4 of the Act gives only two grounds for divorce and these are;<\/p>\n These grounds are further explained in sections 5 and 6 of the Act respectively. The court will grant a divorce on the basis of irretrievable breakdown of the marriage \u2018if it is satisfied that the marriage relationship between the parties has broken down to such an extent that there is no reasonable prospect of the restoration of a normal marriage relationship between them.\u2019 The Act goes on to list the factors that may be considered by the court as pointing towards irretrievable breakdown of the marriage. The factors listed are not exhaustive and these are;<\/p>\n\n