Kids as young as 12 can get married in South Africa
Breakfast with Martin Bester spoke to attorney and law expert Megan Harrington-Johnson about the newly proposed Marriage Bill and the shocking age at which children can still get married in South Africa.
The newly proposed Marriage Bill will bring significant changes to South Africa's marriage laws, including the legal age of marriage in certain instances.
A major aspect of the bill focuses on setting the legal age for marriage in South Africa at 18 years without exception.
Currently, children under the age of 18 can get married under existing laws if special permission is acquired.
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Breakfast with Martin Bester spoke to attorney and law expert Megan Harrington-Johnson about the proposed bill and the current legal age for individuals to get married.
In South Africa, marriages are governed by three separate pieces of legislation:
- The Marriages Act,
- The Civil Unions Act, and
- The Recognition of Customary Marriages Act.
According to BusinessTech, the Marriage Act governs monogamous marriages between opposite-sex couples, while the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act applies to African customary marriages, including polygynous unions, but excludes same-sex couples.
The Civil Union Act accommodates monogamous partnerships for both same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
These three pieces of legislation are segmented, as they were enacted over different periods and have varying requirements pertaining to different types of marriages and relationships.
The proposed new Marriage Bill aims to codify all three of these acts into a single piece of legislation to govern marriages in South Africa. It also seeks to introduce a regulated minimum age for marriage of 18 for both boys and girls.
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Currently, there is confusion regarding the actual minimum age for marriage in South Africa. Technically, the minimum age is 18 for both boys and girls, but there are several exceptions to this rule.
For instance:
- A girl under the age of 16 can get married with the consent of the Minister of Home Affairs.
- Anyone between the ages of 16 and 18 can get married with parental consent.
This creates a lot of confusion and problems.
Additionally, the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act requires permission for minors to get married, but it does not specify an age limit.
This loophole has led to cases where children as young as 12 (in the case of girls) and 14 (in the case of boys) have been married with only parental consent.
The proposed Marriage Bill will make marriages under the age of 18 illegal.
However, detractors of the Bill argue that the penalties imposed on parents who allow children younger than 18 to get married are too lenient. They claim that penalties should not be limited to fines but should also include imprisonment in some cases.
The Bill has yet to be enacted, and we will wait to see what comes of it.
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