Lawyer, lover locked up

A top Pretoria lawyer and his girlfriend have been sentenced to eight years in prison for fraudulently divorcing the attorney's wife.

In May the Ga-rankuwa magistrates court found Mpho Mofomme, 56, his mistress Sebi Moche, 45, guilty of fraud and defeating the ends of justice. On Friday Magistrate Stephan du Toit sentenced the love birds to eight year imprisonment.

The duo appealed both the conviction and sentence but the magistrate only granted them leave to appeal the sentence but ruled that no other court would arrive at the different conclusion on the conviction.

Mofomme, who represented the two police officers killed in Marikana at the Farlam Commission, and Moche were released on R5,000 bail pending the appeal.

The drama started in January 2011 when the Sheriff's office received a letter from Mofomme Attorneys instructing the office to serve summons on Mofomme's wife Marilyn.

The Sheriff's office called a number provided and a woman confirmed that she was Mrs Mofomme. An arrangement was made for her to collect the summons. Two days later the woman arrived but she could not be served with the summons because she was not carrying an identity document. On February 3 she brought the identity document and she was served with the divorce papers - but the woman was not Mrs Mofomme, it was Moche.

Mofomme's wife was shocked when she heard from a friend at a funeral that she was divorced. She went to the magistrate's court and discovered that her husband had indeed divorced her behind her back.

She contested the divorce and an identity parade was arranged for the sheriff to point out the woman she served with the summons. Though Marilyn was on the line-up, the sheriff said Mrs Mofomme was not in the line-up. It later emerged that the number Mofomme gave to the sheriff was instead that of his partner Moche.

Marilyn, 50, successfully challenged the fraudulent divorce and it was rescinded. Now she is divorcing Mofomme.