Shocking! Only 28% of Home Affairs offices will marry lesbian and gay couples
Mambaonline can reveal that only a paltry 28,6% of Home Affairs branches have marriage officers who are willing to marry same-sex couples.
For the first time, the department has released a list of offices across the country that will provide the service.
According to the list, only 117 of the 409 offices nationwide will welcome gay or lesbian couples who would like to get married under the Civil Union Act. (Mambaonline verified with a Home Affairs spokesperson that the number of offices listed on its website is accurate and that all of them do provide different-sex marriage services.)
In Gauteng, only 17 out of 57 offices will conduct same-sex marriages, along with 10 out of 59 in the Eastern Cape, 5 out of 28 in the Free State, 10 out of 58 in Mpumalanga, 16 out 61 in Limpopo and 10 out of 34 in the Western Cape. In the Northern Cape, the number is 9 out of 22, in KZN it’s 29 out of 68 and in North West, 10 out of 22 will assist same-sex couples.
This vast gap has come about because the Civil Union Act that legalised same-sex marriage in 2006 allows marriage officers to opt out of registering same- sex marriages “on the ground of conscience, religion and belief”.
The release of the list aims to alleviate the ongoing problems faced by same-sex couples who have been turned away by certain Home Affairs offices; to help avoid humiliation and couples wasting their time. While it may be useful in that regard for some (mainly those who live near a Civil Union friendly office), it has also highlighted the reality that same-sex couples are not equal under the law in South Africa.
At a press conference on Monday, Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba said the list was just one of the strategies that the department had undertaken to resolve the issue (and others related to a lack of adequate services to LGBTI people). This includes increasing sensitisation of Home Affairs officials and ensuring that LGBTI people are treated respectfully and according to policies and laws by staff.
“On the whole we are on course,” Gigaba said, explaining that a Home Affairs and LGBTI Task-team was also “reviewing relevant legislation to address identified gaps”.
He admitted, however, that the list was not a final solution. “To the extent that our diversity management campaign and sensitivity raising campaign becomes successful and more people do consent [to marry same-sex couples] we will add those names to the list, we will add those offices,” he said.
Matthew Clayton, Research, Advocacy and Policy Coordinator at Triangle Project, said he was appalled by the limited number of offices on the list and that such a list was even necessary.
Infographic courtesy of Adrian Frith
“The fact that LGBTI people have to pick and choose from a menu of places from their own government where they won’t be discriminated against shows that the Civil Union Act has entrenched second-class citizenship onto LGBTI people,” he told Mambaonline.
Clayton dismissed the idea that the problem could be resolved through training of staff. “It’s unbelievable, frankly, how we can talk about sensitising Home Affairs staff when they know they have the right to discriminate against LGBTI people. Until there’s a proper legal directive to ensure equality – no amount of sensitisation and training will achieve that.”
Clayton believes that the Civil Union Act is ultimately a flawed piece of legislation. “It is a ten-year-old compromise that has demonstrated how unworkable it is. And it has codified what is an unconstitutional provision that allows state employees to discriminate against LGBTI people.”
He called on Home Affairs to show leadership on the issue and for the minister to amend the law “before LGBTI people embark on a long and unnecessary process of litigation”.
The list of Home Affairs offices that conduct same-sex civil unions and marriages can be downloaded here (PDF).
- Facebook Messenger
- Total432
I am a registered marriage officer and I refuse to officiate same sex marriages. Staff who work at Home Affairs offices are also protected under the constitution and if its against their beliefs to officiate same sex marriages its against their beliefs. Once again here we have homosexuals trying to force their perverted lifestyle down the throat of people who don’t believe in their lifestyle. This is a damn disgrace, we are all South Africans and protect by the same constitution as homosexuals. Nobody should be forced to officiate these perverted unions. The Bible teach marriage is a sacret union between a man and woman.
To you,Rev Oscar Peter Bougardt. You do not know the bible well enough to begin with. The same bible you claim forbids same sex marriages speaks of love. speaks of unity. if a man and a woman can love and unite,why can’t a man and a man or a woman and a woman do the same? FYI,the bible says the everyone needs a helper,for straight men,their helper is a straight female (woman) that is not the case where homosexual people are concerned. For a gay man,a helper,or their helper is another gay man ,that goes for lesbian women too. Do not speak for the bible. Do not call people perverts. No one is seeking your validation here. We are gay and happy. You are straight,GREAT! and you should be happy (which i doubt you are) and focus on that and ONLY that,No homosexual is out here speaking about how disgusting you straight folks are,because REALLY,HONESTLY,TRULY,we couldn’t careless.
So a Pastafarian can refuse to serve a Christian at a Home Affairs Office because the Christian’s obviously false man-written religious beliefs run contrary to theirs?
With all due respect Reverend, the only “damn disgrace” is your narrow-minded viewpoint on who other human beings choose to love. So, let me dissect this a couple of ways since your comment lies in 2 extremely shaky premises.
Firstly, as much as the freedom to religion is a right enshrined in the Constitution (s 15), so is the equality clause in s 9; so when assessing conflicting rights, we have to assess which right is “greater” in the circumstances and subsequently, how and why we can limit the “lesser” right to have a just and reasonable outcome. S 9 (3) highlights how the State may not in/directly discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation, amongst other things. Furthermore, in S 9 (4) it highlights how no PERSON must unfairly discriminate on the same grounds and national legislation must be enacted to PREVENT/PROHIBIT UNFAIR DISCRIMINATION. Now, your advocacy for this discrimination based on your religious beliefs further entrenches the regression that is actively being fought against in the Constitution and it wants to deny LGBTQi people the same right that heterosexuals have in formally and legally recognising their INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP. Therefore, the freedom of religion can justifiably be limited on these grounds to allow people of the queer community to carve their love in stone.
Secondly, the notion that your religious doctrine permits homophobia: the underlying principle of any religion is to worship the Higher Being and to love each other peacefully. There is no qualifier as to only people with certain sexual orientations, or certain races, or certain genders, or any other socially constructed idea for that matter. Even in the Bible after God had given Moses the 10 Commandments, He had said that above all we must love Him and love each other. That’s equality, in cased your bigotry lenses missed it. And, even if we can find evidence in these religious books of advocacy of hate towards people based on their characteristics, then we should criticise it! Don’t just have blind faith with no rationality involved. If we really accept and believe the premise that religion is a spiritual guidance on how to live our lives according to the word of a benevolent being who is forgiving, loving and peaceful then surely that extends to EVERYONE and ANYONE; anything that is a deviation of that is the actual perversion and needs to be heavily castigated. Oh, and just so you know, I am a theist myself and I do believe in the good of religion-I just try to apply those principles consistently and am not a fundamentalist at heart.
Still some sanity in South Africa!
Just saying none of the so called Christians can keep the 10 commandment of which one of them are “do not judge ” but they have to most to say about lesbian and gay couples. Each to it’s own and let God be the judge. Not forgetting that the most cheating are married men married with married woman or single woman and in society this is not an issue. However “they” have the ordacity to point fingers.