STORY | Marriage Bill makes 18 years the legal requirement for marriage #MarriageBill

There is a Zulu song commonly sung at weddings, usually by the bride’s family. The song says “Isencane lengane ubani obengashada emncane kangaka”. Directly translated, it means “This child is too young, who would get married at such a tender age?”

By now many of us know a show on Moja Love called Isencane Lengane. The show follows the lives of a young couple, Thando and Siyacela Dlamuka, from KwaZulu-Natal, who got married at the age of 15 and 16 respectively in 2019. 

Last week the department of Home Affairs invited us to a ministerial consultative dialogue hosted by the minister Mr Aaron Motsoaledi in Johannesburg. We were there to discuss the Draft Marriage Bill which is currently open for public comment until the end of today (31 August). If passed, among other things, the bill will criminalise any marriage entered into before 18 years. This means that the bill makes 18 years the legal requirement for marriage. 

In practical terms it means that if this bill had already been in existence in 2018-19, Thando and Siyacela wouldn’t have married because they were both below 18 years.

More importantly, the bill makes it illegal for any parent to consent to a minor being married. Currently in South Africa parents hold the right to allow their minor children to enter into customary and civil marriages if they are under the age of 18 years. We all saw how Siyacela’s now-late father Mthandeni Dlamuka and the elders in Thando’s family both gave consent for the minors to marry. The bill makes this illegal. #MarriageBill 

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