Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi says that his department is working on a number of changes to South Africa’s marriage laws.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a marriage policy dialogue last week, Motsoaledi said that the updated policy must speak to three aspects: equality, non-discrimination and human dignity.<\/p>\n
“The reason we want to change the current marriage policy is because it is wrong, and it is not working for South Africans,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There\u2019s no law that prevents children from getting married. Children can obtain consent but parents provide the wrong consent,” he added.<\/p>\n
Motsoaledi said that gaps that have been identified with the current legislation include:<\/p>\n
Other issues\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n In addition to the above gaps,\u00a0Motsoaledi said that South Africa’s current marriage legislation also discriminates against some religious marriages such as the Hindu and the Muslim and certain customary marriages among African communities.<\/p>\n In their place a new, single marriage Act will enable South Africans of different sexual orientation, religious and cultural persuasions to conclude legal marriages that will accord with the constitutional principle of equality, he said.<\/p>\n He added that existing laws prohibit people from marrying their relatives but there is no law which prohibit boys younger than 18 and girls younger than 16 from getting married.<\/p>\n Motsoaledi said that his department would also look to clamp down on fraudulent and fake marriages, with the Department of Homes receiving around 2,000 queries of fake marriages a year.<\/p>\n
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