Effect Of Payment Of Bride Price

The payment of bride price or part thereof does not per se constitute valid marriage gadef customary law. It creates the status of betrothal and therefore a special relationship between the parties to the intended marriage. In some areas, if a girl in respect of whose's intended marriage bride price has been paid becomes pregnant by another man before the proposed marriage takes place, the suitor is by custom entitled to claim the child — a custom which has been condemned by the superior courts.