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Happy one-year anniversary of South Africa’s first confirmed COVID-19 case.
It’s been quite a ride since then, and if you’ve felt the stress and strain of these – wait for it – “unprecedented” times, you’re far from alone.
According to family lawyer Bertus Preller, there has been a “huge surge in new divorce instructions” over the past 12 months, as South African marriages are left in tatters.
Preller told TimesLIVE that whilst February and March make up what insiders dub ‘divorce season’, June through to November last year was far busier than usual.
He says this is due to a number of factors, which can all be linked to COVID-19 and our various lockdowns:
“Tension bred by forced proximity is a massive reason, since marriages which were already in trouble before the lockdown had been exposed to a situation where spouses were 24/7 in each other’s presence, with no freedom,” he said.
Covid-19, Preller said, brought with it a range of psychological effects, including anxiety, depression and fear.
“Given the effects, we have seen more abuse in relationships. Financial stress, combined with confinement, is also pushing some marriages to a legal and physical breaking point,” Preller said.
Familiarity breeds contempt, and spending every waking minute confined indoors with your significant other is not good for one’s mental wellbeing.
Normalise doing things separately from one another – it’s healthy.
Family lawyer Salome Koekemoer (no relation to Vernon, we assume) has also noticed an uptick in divorce cases, adding that online schooling is also a key factor:
“The stress of couples having to work and assist their children with having to attend online schooling is taking its toll, especially with one parent having to make more sacrifices than the other.”
Even with the added stress of lockdowns and the pandemic, many of the divorce filings now are indicative of marriages that have been on the rocks for a while.
Psychologist Willem Slabbert backs that up, as does specialist divorce lawyer Prof Billy Gundelfinger, who says that lockdowns have forced many couples to confront the “true essence” of their relationship.
This is what happens when you have run through everything on Netflix.
Here, have a few codes to unlock hidden Netflix content. Consider it our gift to your relationship, because everything else on the registry was far too expensive.
[source:timeslive]
