MP calls for recognition of Muslim marriages

As the Covid-19 death count rises, the non-recognition of Muslim marriages under SA law is in the spotlight. According to a report on the IoL site, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has said no interim measures will be put in place to at least legalise marriages of Muslims who die due to the novel coronavirus. ‘A marriage entered into in terms of Muslim rites is thus far not recognised in SA,’ said Motsoaledi, replying to a written parliamentary question by Al Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks. ‘The department would not have powers to indicate that a person is married in the death certificate, whereas such is not the case in terms of the law.’ Hendricks had asked Motsoaledi if, ‘in light of the coronavirus pandemic in which Muslims are also affected by projected deaths, he will consider the implementation of interim measures to restore the human dignity of the nikah’. A nikah is a formal, supposedly binding marriage contract entered into through Muslim rites. Hendricks, the only Al Jama-ah MP, told Motsoaledi the non-recognition of Muslim marriages ‘causes extreme difficulties for the surviving spouse and children to claim their rights to benefits’. Hendricks also asked what prevented the government from affording legal recognition to Muslim marriages by the same legislation that recognised African customary marriages. ‘Customary marriages are regulated by the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, 1998. There is no power vested in the government to extend the provision of the Act to other types of marriages,’ Motsoaledi said.