Same-sex marriages are legal in South Africa but government-employed marriage officers can refuse to solemnise if they state their religious objection in writing to the minister of Home Affairs:
Johannesburg - Leading human rights organisations have urged President Cyril Ramaphosa in an open letter, to sign off on the Civil Union Amendment Bill that affords same-sex or same-gender couples the right to be married by any state-employed marriage officer and magistrate they choose.
In 2017, then minister of home affairs, Hlengiwe Mkhize acknowledged that 421 of the ministry’s 1130 marriage officers were exempt from performing same-sex civil unions as they “objected on the grounds of conscience, religion or belief”. “Currently, Section 6 as it stands, is basically state-sanctioned homophobia. Now, the effect of this limitation has a number of couples having horrible experiences at home affairs.Mokgoroane said challenges faced by LGBTQI+ people to access appropriate services from the Department of Home Affairs do not only end with civil unions and partnerships.
Queer human rights organisation, Iranti, along with the Legal Resources Centre , Women’s Legal Centre, Sonke Gender Justice, Triangle Project and Gender DynamiX are, therefore, calling on the president to take steps to address this issue by signing into law the Civil Union Amendment Bill. “The president must protect the most vulnerable, and in this matter, same-sex persons have not been afforded their full rights,” said Pereira.
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