R v Fatima [1912] ZATPD 12 (13 February 1912)

Asiatic.-Prohibited lmmigrant.-Wife of Non-Prohibited
lmmigrant.-Right of one Mahomedan
Wife when other Mahomedan Wife already in
Transvaal.-Act 15 of 1907, sec. 2, sub-sec. 8 (e).

An Asiatic, in applying for a registration certificate
under Act 15 of 1907, declared that he had two
wives,-F. in India whom he had married by
Mahomedan custom in 1886, and R. living with hwn
in the Transvaal and whom he had married by Mahomedan cust01n in 1893. Thereafter R.
deserted him, but he did not divorce her: -Held,
that the said Asiatic was only entitled to have one
wife in the Transvaal, under Act 15 of 1907, sec. 2
sub-sec. 8 (e), and that as R. had remained in the
country by virtue of her husband's said declaratio11,
he had elected that she should be the wife allowed by
the Act, and F. was not entitled to enter or remain
in the Transvaal.