Eastern Cape Marriage Bill Hearings Expose Anti-LGBTQ Sentiment

Public hearings on South Africa’s proposed Marriage Bill in the Eastern Cape have revealed ongoing resistance to same-sex marriage, despite it being legal for nearly 20 years.

The new Bill seeks to unify South Africa’s fragmented marriage laws, merging the Marriage Act, the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, and the Civil Union Act—the latter of which legalised same-sex marriage—into a single, inclusive piece of legislation.

First proposed in 2023, the Bill will also implement a Constitutional Court judgment mandating the recognition of Muslim marriages, which are currently excluded from existing legislation.

Eastern Cape Hearings Draw Opposition

On Monday, 24 March, hundreds of people attended a public hearing on the Bill, held by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs at the King Sabata Dalindyebo Town Hall in Mthatha, OR Tambo District Municipality.

The Eastern Cape is widely considered one of the most homophobic regions in South Africa, with the province accounting for six of the fourteen murders of LGBTQ individuals in the country in 2024.

While there was broad support for the Bill, many attendees expressed concerns about its recognition of same-sex marriages, with opposition largely rooted in religious, cultural, and traditional beliefs.

Religious and Cultural Pushback

According to News24, the inclusion of same-sex marriage in the Bill was primarily rejected by older men, several of whom identified themselves as members of the South African Council of Churches (SACC).

“If a man gets married to another man, it will be the end of our nation,” said one participant at the hearing. “In our culture, same-sex marriage was never allowed.”

EWN quoted others who expressed similar sentiments, with one attendee declaring: “I’m totally against same-sex marriage,” while another stated: “The issue of same-sex marriages gives us a problem in the congregation that we lead.”

In response, a young woman from the organisation SONGE Social Change pushed back, saying: “We are also people, and we have rights.” She added: “People of the same sex also want to be married.”

Parliament passed the Civil Union Act in November 2006, following a landmark 2005 Constitutional Court ruling that affirmed same-sex couples’ constitutional right to marry. In 2020, the Civil Union Amendment Act removed a provision that had allowed civil marriage officers to refuse to solemnise same-sex marriages based on conscience, religion, or belief.

Ongoing Consultations and Conservative Backlash

The public hearings in the Eastern Cape continued on Tuesday in the Chris Hani District Municipality, following earlier consultations in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. The hearings are part of a national public engagement process on the proposed legislation.

The Bill has also faced criticism from the likes of long-time anti-LGBTQ advocate Pastor Errol Naidoo, of the Family Policy Institute, who warned that it would lead to “the death of marriage in South Africa” due to its use of the term “spouse” instead of “husband” and “wife”.

Although the Bill aims to create a more constitutionally inclusive and equal legal framework for marriage, it still limits polygamous marriages to unions between one man and multiple women. This excludes same-sex partners or situations where one woman wishes to marry multiple men, reinforcing traditional gendered definitions of polygamy.