Citizens 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.

According to a report by BusinessTech, marriages in South Africa are currently regulated by three different laws:

• The Marriage Act 25 of 1961: For monogamous marriages between opposite-sex couples
• The Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120 of 1998: For marriages performed under African customary law, including polygynous marriages
• The Civil Union Act 17 of 2006: For monogamous partnerships between both same-sex and opposite-sex couples.

Annelize Nagtegaal, a lecturer in the department of private law at the University of Pretoria, who specialises in family law and divorce law, explained to BusinessTech what the new law could mean for South Africa.

Nagtegaal said that over the past 25 years, South African matrimonial law has expanded significantly. “Initially, our law only recognised and protected heterosexual civil marriages. After the enactment of the Constitution, the state could 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 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 harmonise 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 offence 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 added.