Daily Sun (October 6 2014) - WHEN the pastor asked if anyone objected to the marriage, a young woman stood up. The groom hid his face in shame as she spoke.
YOU CAN'T MARRY THAT MAN BECAUSE I'M HIS WIFE!
These words from Thobile Cele (29) interrupted the wedding of Richard Cele (39) and his makhwapeni, Fikile Dube (29). It happened in an open field in Umbilo Park, south of Durban on Saturday.
Fikile stood there in shock and guests got to their feet in disbelief. Thobile walked straight to the pastor and showed him a marriage certificate and a letter from Home Affairs, proving that she was married to Richard.
"Sorry, pastor, but this wedding is illegal and it can't continue," Thobile said.
"Richard can't marry another woman while he has not divorced me." There was chaos and a lot of noise as the pastor tried to calm down the situation. "You stole Richard from Fikile and now you are crying that she has won Richard back," shouted one woman.
A fight broke out as the bride's relatives tried to attack Thobile and her two sisters. The pastor said it was up to Richard to decide whether the wedding should continue.
"The court process will take place later, so he must decide," the pastor said. An embarrassed Richard announced that the wedding would go on.
"Thobile and I will get divorced," he said. Fikile's relatives chased Thobile away and the wedding continued.
Daily Sun was told that Richard used to go out with Fikile, until he dumped her to marry Thobile in 2012.
But late last year Fikile and Richard started seeing each other again, and allegedly planned to marry without Thobile knowing.
Thobile said she and Richard have a two-year-old baby boy and a house in Phoenix, north of Durban.
"Two weeks ago someone told me that Richard was going to marry this weekend," Thobile said.
"I pretended I would be in Joburg, because I wanted to come and see for myself if he was really that heartless."
Richard's sister, Elsie Cele (35), said the family was only invited to the wedding on Friday.
Richard first denied that there was chaos at his wedding, and said he has already divorced Thobile.
"I sent her divorce papers but maybe the sheriff got delayed," he said.
Advocate Sifiso Sithole of Sithole and Associates Attorneys told the People's Paper that Richard's marriage to Fikile is invalid. "He should have waited for the divorce to finish before marrying his new wife," Sifiso said.
See the Daily Sun mobi site for more on this and other stories....
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