Written By |
The judges said that while South Africa had made “significant advancements” in gender equality, some laws and practices that perpetuate “harmful stereotypes” were still in place.
Search
Relationships
South Africa’s highest court has ruled that men can legally take the surnames of their wives, overturning a decades-old law that barred them from doing so.
In a victory for two couples who challenged the legislation, the Constitutional Court declared that the restriction was a “colonial import” that amounted to gender-based discrimination.
One of the applicants, Henry van der Merwe, had been denied the right to adopt the surname of his wife, Jana Jordaan. Similarly, Andreas Nicolas Bornman was prevented from hyphenating his surname to include that of his wife, Jess Donnelly-Bornman, according to public broadcaster SABC. For the ruling to take effect, Parliament will now need to amend the Births and Deaths Registration Act and its regulations.
The law in question, introduced during South Africa’s years of white-minority rule, had long been criticized as outdated and patriarchal. The couples argued that it violated the equality rights enshrined in South Africa’s 1994 Constitution, adopted after the end of apartheid. Although they had already won their case in a lower court, they petitioned the Constitutional Court to confirm the ruling.
The judges added that while South Africa had made “significant advancements” in gender equality, some laws and practices that perpetuate “harmful stereotypes” were still in place
In its judgment, the Constitutional Court observed that in many African cultures, women traditionally retained their birth names after marriage, and children often took their mother’s clan name. This changed, the judges noted, with the arrival of European colonizers and Christian missionaries, who imposed Western customs.
“The custom that a wife takes the husband’s surname existed in Roman-Dutch law and was introduced into South African common law,” the court said. “This custom was also reinforced by legislation brought by colonial powers in Africa.”
The judges added that while South Africa had made “significant advancements” in gender equality, some laws and practices that perpetuate “harmful stereotypes” were still in place.
Notably, neither Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber nor Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mamoloko Kubayi opposed the application. Both agreed that the law was outdated.
The Free State Society of Advocates, which joined the case in support of the couples, argued that by restricting a man’s right to take his wife’s surname, the law perpetuated harmful stereotypes and denied men a choice already available to women, Sowetan reported.
Source: BBC
Read original Story here: South African court rules that men can take wife's surname
