HARARE — South Africa’s leading religious and cultural groups are pushing back hard against a proposed marriage law — originally aimed at combating discrimination against religious minorities — that would also allow South African women to have more than one husband at one time. 

Since 91% of South Africa’s 16,000 marriage officers are faith leaders, the voice of religious leaders carries a lot of weight on the issue. 

Bishop Marothi Mashashane, the president of the South African National Christian Forum, considers the whole proposal to be “a disgrace and mockery to both our religion and our African cultures.”

“The Word of God never promoted that, even in our culture it is a barbaric thing,” Mashashane said in a statement. “It is for that reason that we are going to mobilize all our Christian churches [against it].”

It is not just Christians that consider this proposal published by the country’s Department of Home Affairs in a Green Paper on marriage reforms earlier this month to be an abomination. Many other religious and cultural groups in the country are equally furious.

“As far as polyandry is concerned, it is something which is foreign to Islamic law and therefore we are not in support of that type of provision in the Bill,” said Muslim Judicial Council’s spokesperson Muneer Abdouroaf.

Ganief Hendricks, the leader of Al Jama-ah, a Muslim political party went even further to organize support for street protests to demand that the proposal is excluded altogether from the draft law.

“The second and subsequent marriages in a polyandrous marriage will be considered by Al Jama-ah as an adulterous relationship,” he said. “Al Jama-ah will support street protests against this provision so that it is not included in the Bill expected to be ready for Cabinet approval in 2023. Disapproval will also form part of our manifesto for the 2024 national elections.”

Move To End Discrimination

Legalization of polyandry is only one of the wide-ranging proposals in the 67-page document, called the Green Paper. The department stressed that it seeks to create a new marriage law that will allow all people in South Africa to enter into recognized, legal marriages.

Currently Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Rastafarian marriages are not recognized by South African marriage laws which are based on Christianity, the religion of a majority 80% of the country’s 60 million population.

“The failure to recognize these religious marriages is untenable and discriminatory,”  the draft law states.

Over the past two years the Department of Home Affairs went around the country holding a series of meetings that culminated in this Green Paper.

Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and officials collected the views of a cross-section of stakeholders that included religious leaders, traditional leaders, academics and LGBTQ+ and gender activists.

“Moreover, activists submitted that equality demands that polyandry be legally recognized as a form of marriage,” the document states.

Three Options To Choose From

The Green Paper proposes three new marriage regimes that it says could bring about equality in marriage laws.

The first option is an “inclusive customary and religious marriage regime”. This would see the recognition of Customary Marriages Act amended to cater for all marriages irrespective of race, cultural and religious persuasions. 

The second option would be a religion and culture-neutral marriage regime, while the third option would be a gender-neutral marriage regime.

“This would accommodate both polygyny and polyandry,” said the document. “The difference between options 2 and 3 is that this [third] option is gender neutral. Therefore, all marriages, whether monogamous or polygamous, could be concluded regardless of the sex or sexual orientation of the person.” 

The Department of Home Affairs suggested that only the third option would ensure that the country’s marriage laws are in full compliance with the country’s Constitution.

“The political appetite of the country to confront the challenges of the current marriage statute will be tested through these options. However, if Section 9 of the Constitution was to be implemented in its entirety, option 3 will tick all the boxes,” the department said in the Green Paper.

The public has until the end of June to comment on the department’s proposals.

Hypocrisy Alleged

While the Green Paper highlights what it says is the hypocrisy of those who support polygamy while opposing polyandry, statistics appear to show that only 2% of marriages in South Africa are polygamous, and there are even fewer faith leaders who solemnize these marriages, which fall under the “Customary Marriages” category. 

Of the 342,809 Customary Marriages on the South African National Population Register, most of the them (333,387) are registered with one spouse. Only 8,410 are registered with two spouses, and only one is registered with 10 spouses.

Crucial Public Discourse

The department said it was aware these proposals would raise tempers but maintained that the changes were unavoidable. 

“This is the beginning of a crucial public discourse that will re-define the concept of marriage in South Africa,” it said. “The process will unearth issues that may make some of us uncomfortable but will encourage dialogue within the South African and international communities.”

The South African Times ran a poll asking whether polyandry should be legalized in the country and the results showed that a total of 43.67% of voters said it should be while 39.32% believed the proposal was “un-African”. 

Many are quick to point out that the proposals have nothing to do with sexual relations between people and everything to do with equality under the Constitution.

Still, religious leaders are not likely to budge.

“According to the Bible, which we believe in, polyandry is considered sexual immorality, like the marriage between people of the same sex, and we shall by no means bless such a relationship as a marriage,” warned Bishop Mashashane.

Cyril Zenda is a Christian African journalist and writer based in Harare, Zimbabwe.