Tsobo v Tsobo

The appellant and respondent were married but living separately and later divorced. They had one minor child. The appellant applied in the Magistrate’s Court for a protection order under the Domestic Violence Act 116 of 1998, alleging that over a period of time the respondent sent him SMS messages that were verbally abusive, provocative and insulting, and that she verbally abused him during phone calls and alienated him from the child. He relied mainly on the content of several SMS messages sent between December 2017 and April 2019. The Magistrate’s Court dismissed the application, finding no act of domestic violence. An appeal to the Free State Division of the High Court was also dismissed. The appellant then appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal with special leave, persisting only with the claim that the SMS messages constituted emotional, verbal or psychological abuse and harassment.

The appeal was dismissed with costs.

The case clarifies the evidentiary threshold for establishing emotional, verbal or psychological abuse and harassment under the Domestic Violence Act. It confirms that not all hostile or unpleasant communications between spouses, particularly in the context of divorce, amount to domestic violence. The judgment also serves as a warning against the abuse of domestic violence proceedings for purposes of harassment or leverage in matrimonial disputes.