Proposed Marriage Bill formalises polygamy… only for men

Lester Kiewit speaks to Ceri von Ludwig, Family law attorney and Charlene May, Women's Legal Centre.

Listen to the interview in the audio below.

South Africa’s proposed Marriage Bill has raised questions around the recognition of polygamous unions.

Arguments have been put forward for validating these relationships, while also posing legal questions about the rights of all parties involved.

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The bill, which is not open for public comment, aims to ensure all marriages follow principles of equality and non-discrimination.

Von Ludwig says that polygamous marriage will likely be the biggest talking point in the bill, although it does not make provisions for same sex polygamous marriage.

With the current legislation, polygamous are only partly recognised under customary law.

“What this bill seeks to do is put in writing exactly what you need to do if you want to enter into a polygamous marriage.”

- Ceri von Ludwig, Family law attorney

“This is all marriages, it is not only restricted to customary marriage.”

- Ceri von Ludwig, Family law attorney

May says that it is important for our laws to protect all parties in a marriage, while recognising that women are often most vulnerable in these cases.

However, she says this bill only recognises men’s ability to take more than one spouse.

The other big change in the bill is a provision to prevent child marriage, which is an extremely important development.

“The bill tries to criminalise child marriage which is something we have been advocating for.”

- Charlene May, Women’s Legal Centre

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.