Media Alert: Home Affairs Committee to Conduct Public Hearings on Marriages Bill in Eastern Cape Next Week

Parliament, Thursday, 20 March 2025 – The Portfolio Committee on Home will from 24 to 27 March hold public hearings on the Marriage Bill [B43-2023] in the Eastern Cape. The Eastern Cape is the third province to make oral submissions to the committee, following hearings already held in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

The committee has resolved to hold public hearings in all provinces and to create a conducive platform that will ensure meaningful public participation to allow members of the public to make their submission on the Bill, as mandated by Section 59 of the Constitution. In line with this, Parliament through its Public Education Unit undertook an extensive public education process to ensure that participants make informed and qualitative submissions that will add value to the Bill.

“The public participation process is the cornerstone of South Africa’s constitutional democracy, as enshrined in Section 59 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, which compels the National Assembly to facilitate public involvement in the legislative and other processes of the Assembly and its committees. The committee intends to ensure that the process is inclusive and far reaching and that a conducive platform is created for people to make meaningful submissions on the Bill,” Mr Chabane said.

The Bill seeks to rationalise the marriage laws pertaining to various types of marriages and introduce a single marriage statute to replace the three existing marriage laws governing civil marriages, customary marriages and civil unions.

The Bill further seeks to recognise all marriages, irrespective of religion, custom, sexual orientation or other beliefs. All marriages, concluded either following the tenants of any custom, religion or belief, will, therefore, be recognised. The Bill will further ensure that all marriages concluded before the commencement of the Bill continue to be recognised as marriages under South African law.

Also, the Bill seeks to prohibit marriages involving children in line with South Africa’s obligations as it relates to international human rights instruments, as well as the protection of children. In this regard, the Bill introduces a requirement that both prospective spouses must be 18 years or older. The Bill further introduces offences and penalties for entering or concluding marriages with minors, as well as solemnising such marriages.

The Bill will further ensure that the Minister of Home Affairs is able to designate marriage officers from all strata of society and sets out the requirements to be designated as a marriage officer.

In KwaZulu-Natal there were objections to provisions relating to polygamous marriages, with women cautioning that the requirement for wives to give written consent would expose them to the risk of gender-based violence in cases where they are not willing to provide the obligatory written consent. On the other hand, male participants objected to the written consent because they argued that there are already established cultural protocols when a men wanted to enter into a polygamous marriage. Also, there was a view that the bill must provide a regulatory framework and limit for lobola, as there is a trend to use the practice as a get-rich-quick scheme. As in Gauteng, some participants in KZN called for the increase of the legal age of marriage to 21 and not 18 as proposed by the Bill.

The committee would like to urge residents of the Eastern Cape to come in their numbers to contribute to the Bill. “The drafters of the Constitution envisioned laws that are reflective of the general views of all South Africans and this is an incredible opportunity for the people to make a contribution on the Bill,” Mr Chabane said.

Details of the EC hearings are as follows: 

ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HOME AFFAIRS, MR MOSA CHABANE.

For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Sakhile Mokoena
Parliamentary Communication Services
Cell: 081 705 2130
Email: smokoena@parliament.gov.za