Yoga teacher can’t get wed in Switzerland, home affairs claims she’s married to someone else

A South African yoga teacher living in Switzerland has been frustrated by an alleged fraudulent marriage that has prevented her from marrying her fiancé.

According to the Department of Home Affairs, Michelle Banda is married to a Nigerian man but she says she has never met him. The ceremony was also supposedly held on 31 January 2003, in Cullinan, Pretoria – a town she has never set foot in.

Her attempts to rescind her marriage, however, have been in vain.

In 2005, she lost her identity document (ID) in Mmabatho, North West, and was issued with a replacement, but little did she know she was married to a Chidiebere Emmanuel by that time.

Fake husband

Even more strange, her supposed husband assumed her surname after the marriage and her name is misspelt on the marriage certificate.

Also frustrating is the fact that the certificate only has her identity number but not that of her supposed husband.

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“[The Department of] Home Affairs does not put any details of the husband, I have enquired about this but was told it was not their practice to add details. So there is no way to identify the person by ID or passport number,” she said.

Elusive vault copy

The Department of Home Affairs has seemingly been unable to produce the original or vault copy of the marriage certificate, which would list witnesses and presiding officials.

Original documents issued by home affairs are called vault documents and kept in storage warehouses, called the DHA archives or “vaults” at the department’s headquarters in Pretoria.

“It has been a lot for me, running around trying to get out of this fraudulent marriage but all has come to nothing. Home affairs must prove the marriage because I can prove I was never there. I have been sent back and forth in my attempts to get the copy. Why?” Banda asked.

Nightmare

Her nightmare began last October when she sought a Letter (or Certificate) of No Impediment, required from foreign authorities when South Africans want to get married in foreign countries. 

Banda, 46, of Brakpan in the East Rand and daughter of legendary former Orlando Pirates goalkeeper, Patson ‘Kamuzu’ Banda, said in March she was supposed to get married to her fiancé in Switzerland.

Their wedding had to be postponed as she tries to get the fake marriage annulled.

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“[In December] I went to the Brakpan offices and was told to go to the Johannesburg offices where I could find records and report the fraudulent marriage. In Johannesburg I was referred to Cullinan, where the supposed marriage occurred,” she explained.

In January, Banda went to Cullinan, paid the fee for the vault copy but was told this could not be immediately located. She waited for another two weeks but still got nothing.

Sent from pillar to post

Since then, she has been sent from pillar to post, and at some stage she was told the vault copy could not be found.

“I have dealt with at least seven officials but I still cannot get the copy. It is because it does not exist. On the day I was supposedly married I was at work in Johannesburg,” she said.

Banda has had to depose a sworn affidavit that she is not married and provide 10 witnesses to this fact, but still the department has not produced the vault copy.

Department of Home Affairs spokesperson Thabo Makgola is yet to respond to questions about Banda’s dilemma and the department’s alleged failure to look into this matter.

In October last year, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed that 553 fraudulent marriages have been finalised since 1 January 2022.

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