Marriage seminar guides couples to better relationships

FAMILIES South Africa (Famsa) and Marriage Affairs hosted a marriage seminar on January 27 in which common factors that often bring the end to many marriages were explored.

This partnership advised couples on creating a long-lasting marriage.

Naku Masuku, the national executive director of Famsa, said the seminar’s purpose was to help people invest in their relationships and grow from strength to strength.

“We are embarking on this journey because we believe that if there is a marriage or people who are committed, they will then be able to build a family to help a community fall in place,” Masuku said.

Masuku said the joint venture represents what the two organisations stand for.

She said the seminar represented couples from different parts of South Africa.

“We have guests who came all the way from Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal.”

Xolani Hlitana, the executive director of Marriage Affairs, said many problems are usually a result of people taking their marriage for granted.

“With this seminar, we are helping people to identify key things that are eating away at their marriage.

“We are hoping that at the end of this event, we will have a couple that will go out and be representatives of a good marriage.”

Hlitana said the high rate of divorce in the country is evident.

“There are a lot of ills within a lot of marriages,” he added.

The topics were different experiences of the two people in a marriage, values of their marriage, strengths of their marriage and loopholes within their marriage.

The counselling panel at the session also advised people on the experiences and challenges in their marriage.