South African pre-apartheid customary marriages limiting women rights and post-apartheid transformative interventions

Abstract

The indigenous people of South Africa have very rich traditions and customs before the arrival of the White colonial and apartheid settlers. One of the customs that endured and practiced amongst the indigenous people predominantly the black people was the way and manner they conduct and consummate customary marriages. This culture and belief played prominent roles and strict adherence to them was required and enforced. Methodologically, the discussion in this article is broadly grounded on the existing post-apartheid transformative customary marriage interventions where the Constitution and legislation recognised equal rights of women just like their male counterparts in customary marriages. To this end, the article did an in-depth critical review and analysis in addressing discrimination and ensuring that customary marriages meet the requirements of the Constitution. In this regard, the article makes amodest approach to justify why customary marriages should continue to be practiced in their original forms and at the same time meet and pass Constitutional muster which entails protecting and promoting the rights of vulnerable gender women. Methodologically, the article used post-1994 apartheid customary laws to accentuate the need to continually afford equal rights to women in customary marriages.