The Domestic Violence Act may not be exploited or manipulated to gain a tactical advantage in divorce litigation and custody battles.
In the Act, domestic violence is broadly defined, making it easy for a malicious and vindictive complainant to have an innocent respondent arrested.
A lawyer may further exploit and manipulate the Act to gain an unfair advantage over his or her opponent to gain an unfair advantage in divorce proceedings.
Lawyers representing complainants in Domestic Violence Act applications have a responsibility to ensure that the provisions of the Act are not abused to obtain benefits other than those for which the Act was intended.
The High Court has the power as upper guardian of all minor children to annul an interim protection order granted in a magistrate’s court in terms of the Act, where it is in the best interests of the children.
In one case, the custodian parent was using the interim protection order to deny the other parent access to the children in terms of another court order.
The court found that it was never the intention of the legislature when enacting the Domestic Violence Act to remove the inherent common law powers of the High Court.
