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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Women Married in Customary Law: No Longer Permanent Minors
Author:Samuel, Sharita
Year:1999
Periodical:Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity
Issue:40
Pages:23-31
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:customary law
family law
marriage law
Cultural Roles
Marital Relations and Nuptiality
Law, Legal Issues, and Human Rights
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10130950.1999.9675733
Abstract:The overriding objective of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act (1998) is to ameliorate the inconsistencies in South African family law which relegated women to the position of second class citizens or, even worse, to women with no status at all. The main object of the Act is to extend full legal recognition to marriages entered into in accordance with customary law or traditional rites. The Act also seeks to improve the position of children within these marriages and strives to reconcile traditional culture with the competing claims posed by the constitutional requirement to establish norms of equal treatment and nondiscrimination. This article analyses the Act and discusses the sections relating to polygyny, the consent of both spouses to the customary marriage, bridewealth, registration of marriages, equal status of spouses, property regimes, second customary marriages, divorce, guardianship and custody, and the age of majority. Without additional corrective interventions the Act will fail in bringing customary law in line with the equality provisions of South Africa's constitution and its international human rights commitment and obligations. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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