The Flip Side: Will you marry us? South Africa plans new polygamy laws
South Africa wants to overhaul its marriage laws. A key change is the creation of a legal framework for recognition and inheritance entitlements for all the wives of polygamous men. But the proposed law falls short on equality — women who want multiple husbands and same-sex throuples are excluded.
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00:00When you say, I do, your happily ever after relationship might look different than that of
00:06others. But what if your own definition on what makes a good marriage is frowned upon?
00:14That's something the authorities in South Africa seem to be battling with.
00:19Let's talk about tying the knot. On the flip side.
00:23Love is in the air. Or is that the smell of rules and regulations?
00:29Legal experts in South Africa are walking a tightrope on defining what should or shouldn't
00:35qualify as a marriage. The question at the heart of the issue is polygamy.
00:42If we want to say that women and men are equal, then we must be equal on all chairs.
00:50And to say that a man can have five wives, but a woman only have one husband.
00:55I mean, we don't need an expert to tell anyone that that seems or sounds unfair.
01:00There already are legal provisions to protect polygamous marriages in South Africa.
01:05Now, a new marriage bill aims to bring all the laws governing marriages,
01:10customary arrangements and civil unions, as well as polygamous arrangements,
01:16into one neat orderly system and make things consistent.
01:21But it seems to fall short on that very principle of consistency.
01:26If we are going to allow it for one group, why can my group not have that as well?
01:32Then me as a woman, I also want the option to enter into a marriage with two men.
01:40The government's policy document on the proposed new law
01:43states that the legal framework that will regulate polygamous marriages
01:47will be inclusive of all marriages, irrespective of race, religion, culture, sex, gender and nationality.
01:58But just two pages later, it states,
02:00while there is no constitutional or legal basis for rejecting polyandry,
02:06it is recommended that this proposal should not be included in the marriage policy or statute.
02:13Certainly is from the point of view of gender equality, well, very difficult to defend.
02:23After centuries of racism, segregation, slavery, sexism and apartheid,
02:29should South Africa, of all places, still hold on
02:34to puritanical notions of a marriage between a man and a woman?
02:39So if you have already recognised civil unions, you've allowed same-sex couples,
02:44you have done this, you have done that,
02:46go all the way and allow women to marry more than one man if they so wish.
02:50Why stop halfway? It's liberalism.
02:53If the new law prescribes that marriages will be inclusive of all marriages,
02:59should this not be equally accessible to everyone?
03:03And if marriage is a legal contract, shouldn't it protect all?
03:09And that is the flip side.