Reviewing the socio-cultural effects of the customary marriage act of South Africa on women

Abstract

Culture and tradition play an important role amongst the African indigenous communities in South Africa. People are mostly identified by the languages they speak and by their way of life. Patrilineality and polygamy have traditionally been important elements in most black African kinship structures and family organization. The marriage system is mostly dominated, in practice, by social and economic factors and alliance-orientated considerations. Customary marriage has been and is still an important form of a marriage concluded in the African customary way. Before the introduction of the Recognition of Customary Marriage Act 120, of 1998 marriage of the indigenous people in South Africa was largely ignored by the South African law to an extend that most marriages which were concluded customarily were overruled and nullified by the marriage concluded under civil law. This study highlights the importance of the customary law in terms of the African indigenous marriage concluded according to the customs and traditions observed by indigenous people. Whilst on one side the Government of South Africa is acknowledged and commended for legislating the marriage of African indigenous people especially in terms of inheritance of women married under this type of marriage, the study in its analysis also highlights the gaps which have been identified in the Recognition of the Customary Marriage Act 120 of 1998. This paper used content analysis as a methodology in analyzing the merits and demerits of the law. The findings of the study are that there are ambiguities with regard to this act as it has channels for sexual abuse of girl children in that they can be married as minors, to older men. A family may borrow some livestock from a richer family in exchange of the marriage of their daughter to the family without her consent as she will still be younger.

Key Words: Culture, Tradition, Lobola, Gaenagamy, Mino