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Just over six years ago, Jane Bwanya, a former domestic worker, began a relationship with a wealthy businessman, Anthony Ruch,

The two met at a Camps Bay taxi stop, and the relationship progressed into a life partnership.

When Ruch died in 2016 of a heart attack, Bwanya laid claim to his estate, which was being administered by the Master’s office because he had initially left his estate to his mother, who was already dead and had not amended his will.

The estate includes a guesthouse in Camps Bay and an apartment in Sea Point.

In September last year, she succeeded in changing the provisions of the Intestate Succession Act, which had barred unmarried partners in a heterosexual life partnership from inheriting.

In her judgement, per TimesLIVE, Western Cape High Court judge Penelope Magona said that:

…the act had to be amended to include, alongside the word “spouse”, the words, “or a partner in a permanent opposite-sex life partnership in which the partners had undertaken reciprocal duties of support and had been committed to marrying each other”.

In 2016, the Constitutional Court had ruled that same-sex partners could inherit their deceased partner’s intestate estate even if they were not legally married. This right didn’t extend to opposite-sex partners.

Image: Jane Bwanya, TimesLIVE

Bwanya, who had already received a final settlement of R3 million from Ruch’s estate following a deal with his executors, is not entitled to his remaining estate.

These include cash from the sale of his R6.7m Camps Bay house and R2.5m Mouille Point flat and R1m in financial investments. Instead they will go to distant relatives living overseas.

On Tuesday last week, she approached the Constitutional Court to have the initial judgement put forth by the Western Cape High Court confirmed, thereby changing the law.

By all accounts, their relationship was a life partnership, with Ruch’s friend, Joe Galante, describing him as “head over heels in love with Jane”.

“For the last six months of his life, whenever we met for coffee, all he could talk about was their marriage.”

“Tony was not your conventional type of person. He was extravagant, but at the same time very kind. He cared for people. He had a big heart. Tony’s death was a massive blow to Jane. She was devastated.”

The case is ongoing, and no judgement from the Constitutional Court has been administered.

Should the judgement be confirmed, it will be groundbreaking for opposite-sex couples in life partnerships.

[source:timeslive]