Pretoria residents should be aware that the Marriage Bill, currently awaiting approval by the National Assembly, seeks to consolidate and reform South Africa’s marriage laws into a unified system. Here’s what you need to know.
According to a report by BusinessTech, marriages in South Africa currently are regulated through three different laws:
- The Marriage Act: for the monogamous marriage of opposite-sex couples.
- The Recognition of Customary Marriages Act: for marriages performed under African customary law, including polygynous marriages, of opposite-sex couples.
- The Civil Union Act: for monogamous partnerships for same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
BusinessTech spoke to Annelize Nagtegaal, a lecturer in the Department of Private Law at the University of Pretoria, who has experience teaching Family Law and Divorce Law and explained what this new law means for South Africa.
Nagtegaal explained that over the last 25 years, South African matrimonial law has become much broader than it once was.
“Initially our law only recognised and protected heterosexual civil marriages. After the enactment of the Constitution, the state could, however, no longer justify a matrimonial regime that recognised and catered for only one type of marriage.”
Section 9(3) of the Constitution prohibits unfair discrimination based on factors such as sex, sexual orientation, race, culture, and religion.
This led to the inclusion of civil unions, customary marriages, and Muslim marriages under legal protection.
The Marriage Bill aims to simplify and harmonize South Africa’s marriage laws by creating a unified system with a minimum set of requirements for all marriages, regardless of cultural or religious practices.
It seeks to eliminate distinctions between different types of marriages, ensuring fair and equal treatment for all spouses.
Additionally, the Bill proposes raising the legal marriage age to 18, making it a criminal offense to marry a child and introducing penalties for violations.
“The raising of the minimum marriageable age is certainly a step in the right direction,” Nagtegaal said.
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