State ordered to fix customary marriages law gaps

Malawi’s High Court has identified major lapses in government provisions for validating customary marriages in that country, and has ordered that these be rectified urgently. Among other orders, the judge hearing the case, Zione Ntaba, gave the government a month to gazette the list of traditional authorities (chiefs) who must act as registrars of customary marriages under the Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Act, none of whom have so far been identified and confirmed in those positions. Carmel Rickard, in her A Matter of Justice column on the Legalbrief site, writes that the gap in the law was brought to light during Ntaba’s hearing of a divorce case appeal: the wife disputed the finding of the magistrate who held there had been no marriage between the couple. The court’s ruling, particularly the order that government must sort out its failure to provide the infrastructure necessary to ensure that couples in customary marriages are legally married, is likely to have a widespread impact.

Malawi judgment

A Matter of Justice