Muslim and Christian organisations who appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs to make submissions on the Marriage Bill have called for the draft legislation to protect religious rights.
The committee is continuing with public consultations on the Bill, which seeks to rationalise the marriage laws regime and have one inclusive piece of legislation governing all forms of marriages in South Africa.
The South African Council of Churches, We Are Church, the Islamic Forum and the Sunni Ulama Council Gauteng raised concerns about clauses in the Bill that seek to prevent marriage officers employed by the Department of Home Affairs from refusing to solemnise certain marriages based on their own religious beliefs.
“While we appreciate and support the recognition of various forms of marriage,” said Ms Karen Meyer, from the SA Council of Churches, “it is submitted that Christians make up by far the majority of the population. It is a concern that this majority should not be impacted negatively or prejudiced in the process of implementation of the proposed legislation. All marriage officers, whether ex officio or designated in terms of section 8, enjoy the protection of sections 9 and 15 of the Constitution.
“We submit that the right afforded to designated marriage officers in terms of section 11(4) of the Marriage Bill not to solemnise a marriage that is against their conscience, religion or belief, should include ex officio marriage officers,” she suggested.
The Sunni Ulama Council, representing the Islamic faith, echoed the call that marriage officers should not be forced to solemnise marriages that contradict their religion. In its submission, the Islamic Forum said the Bill in its current form supersedes the rights of Muslims and needs to be rectified.
“Taking into account the Constitutional Court ruling and the sections of the Constitution quoted in the preamble of this Bill, in our opinion this intended Bill falls short of the legal requirements as well as the expectation of the Muslim community,” the organisation submitted.
The committee also heard submissions from the Women Legal Centre, Be True 2 Me, the Hate Crimes Working Group and the National House of Traditional and Khoisan Leaders.
Ms Khensani Motileni, from the Women Legal Centre, said they welcomed the initiative to rationalise South Africa’s marriage laws but have concerns about some parts of the Marriage Bill. “One of our main overarching concerns is the Bill’s silence on domestic partnerships. We have over a million people living in unregistered partnerships and we submit that the law must make provision for them,” she said.
Be True 2 Me and Hate Crimes Working Group commended the Bill for its inclusivity, saying it was important that gender diverse people were not left out of the process. “The new Marriage Bill appears to remove inequalities, respect diversity, dignity and freedom of choice, and this sets the stage to end bias and discrimination that we currently witness toward diverse couples and different families,” said Ms Kim Lithgow, Chairperson of Hate Crimes Working Group.
The House of Traditional and Khoisan Leaders said it recommends an omnibus or umbrella marriage law as a legislative option to enable regulation of all marriages.
Committee Chairperson Mr Mosa Chabane said the submissions are a continuation of the extensive consultation process on the Bill, that started a year ago. “Since we started a year ago with the public consultations and visited eight of the nine provinces, we have received sufficient response in terms of submissions, I must also mention that all your submissions are equally important and will assist the committee during the deliberations on the Bill before making a decision,” he said.
Sakhile Mokoena
4 December 2025
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