Gauteng Premier, David Makhura holds a copy of a newly found example of a Homo Naledi skeleton named Neo during a media event held at Maropeng, 9 May 2017 to announce more findings from the Rising Star cave system in which Homo Naledi was found a year and a half ago. The age of Homo naledi has been determined to be in the vicinity of 335 000-236000 years old, meaning that it is likely they roamed the earth in the vicinity of Homo Sapiens demonstrating for the first time that another species lived alongside the first humans in Africa. Picture: Neil McCartney
It is disconcerting to realise, a quarter of a century since this country attained democracy, that there are some gravely discriminatory laws still on the statute books.
The Constitutional Court moved this week to remove a piece of legislation which makes African women unable to own property and leaves them permanently dependent on the male heads of their families.
The court ordered parliament to rectify the law, which dates from the apartheid era.
The law applies to cases where deeds of grant issued by particularly the former homeland governments – Bantustans – were later converted to a right of ownership.
African women were specifically excluded from the provisions of the Upgrading of Land Tenure Rights Act of 1991.
The court ruled that the legislation discriminated against women because only a man could be regarded as the head of a family.
The judgment said the legislation was “irrational and unconstitutional”.
The National Assembly has been given 18 months to make corrections.
The victory is a major one for African women, who are at the bottom of the societal pyramid in South Africa when it comes to discrimination and bias.
There is still a long way to go – especially in terms of sexism and gender violence – but this is a start.
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