At the request of the Department of Home Affairs, the Law Commission has included in its programme an investigation into the Marriage Act 25 of 1961. The investigation will focus mainly on whether the provisions contained in the Act are adequate or whether they should be amended and, in that event, the way in which such amendments should be effected.
The Marriage Act presently governs the following aspects of contracting marriages in South Africa.
sets out the formalities that must be gone through in order to contract a valid marriage and these include the requirements that the parties appear in person with witnesses, that the marriage be solemnised by a marriage officer according to a certain formula in a public building within certain times of the day and that the parties sign a marriage register.
The Commission wishes to draw attention to two of its investigations which have a direct bearing on this project, namely Customary Marriages and Islamic Marriages . The investigation into Customary Marriages has already resulted in an Issue Paper and a Discussion Paper containing preliminary recommendations, whereas the investigation in Islamic Marriages is still in its planning stage.
The Commission invites the comments of all parties who feel that they have an interest in the topic concerned or may be affected by the type of measures set out in the Marriage Act. Individuals, organisations and institutions affected by the Marriage Act or who are likely to be affected by possible amendments to the existing legislation should participate in this debate and are invited to indicate how the present law governing the contracting of marriage affects them, what their concerns are, what solutions they are able to propose and whether there are other issues and/or options affecting the law of marriage that must be explored.
Based on the outcome of these comments a discussion paper setting out the issues and preliminary recommendations and containing draft legislation will be prepared and distributed for general information and comment. Finally, on the basis of these comments and discussions, a report containing the Commission's final recommendations will be prepared and presented to the Minister of Justice.
It would be appreciated if written comments or suggestions could reach the Commission by 20 February 1998 at the address given below.
Correspondence should be addressed to: The Secretary South African Law Commission Private Bag X 668 PRETORIA 0001 e-mail: pvwyk@salawcom.org.