Page:Divorce Amendment Act 1989.djvu/2

2No. 11741

Act No. 7, 1989 GENERAL EXPLANATORY NOTE

To amend the Divorce Act, 1979, so as to provide that a party to a divorce action may share in the pension interest of the other party; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

E IT ENACTED by the State President and the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, as follows:―

Amendment of section 1 of Act 70 of 1979

1. Section 1 of the Divorce Act, 1979, is hereby amended by the addition to subsection (1) of the following definitions: “ ‘pension fund’ means a pension fund as defined in section 1 (1) of the Pension Funds Act, 1956 (Act No. 24 of 1956), irrespective of whether the provisions of that Act apply to the pension fund or not;

‘pension interest’, in relation to a party to a divorce action who—

is a member of a pension fund (excluding a retirement annuity fund), means the benefits to which that party as such a member would have been entitled in terms of the rules of that fund if his membership of the fund would have been terminated on the date of the divorce on account of his resignation from his office; is a member of a retirement annuity fund which was bona fide established for the purpose of providing life annuities for the members of the fund, and which is a pension fund, means the total amount of that party’s contributions to the fund up to the date of the divorce, together with a total amount of annual simple interest on those contributions up to that date, calculated at the same rate as the rate prescribed as at that date by the Minister of Justice in terms of section 1 (2) of the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act, 1975 (Act No. 55 of 1975), for the purposes of that Act;

‘rules’, in relation to a pension fund, means rules as defined in section 1 (1) of the Pension Funds Act, 1956. ”.

Amendment of section 7 of Act 70 of 1979, as amended by section 36 of Act 88 of 1984

2. Section 7 of the Divorce Act, 1979, is hereby amended by the addition of the following subsections: “ (7) (a) In the determination of the patrimonial benefits to which the parties to any divorce action may be entitled, the pension interest of a party shall, subject to paragraphs (b) and (c), be deemed to be part of his assets.