Page:Fourie v Minister of Home Affairs (SCA).djvu/40

Rh the extent that permanent same-sex life partnerships can be recognised as marriages and submitted that the appellants had not laid any factual basis for this contention. After admitting that under the Constitution the appellants may not be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation and that their human dignity may not be infringed and that they are, as it was put, ‘living in some sort of consortium with each other’, the respondents denied that the appellants are being discriminated against or that they are, as it was put, ‘suffering indignity because their intended marriage will not be recognised’. The respondents also contended that the appellants had not provided any factual basis for the allegation that they were being discriminated against. In this regard it was said that it was ‘revealing’ that the appellants had ‘not as yet approached the Department of Home Affairs for the registration of their relationship’.

JUDGMENT OF COURT A QUO

In his judgment dismissing the application Roux J, after pointing out that the appellants commenced living together in June 1994 and that their relationship appeared to be a ‘sincere and abiding’ one, said that they claimed to be married. He emphasized that no attempt had been made to amend the prayers and added: