Page:Marriage and Matrimonial Property Law Amendment Act 1988.djvu/2

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 4 MARCH 1988

GENERAL EXPLANATORY NOTE

To amend the marriage and matrimonial property law with regard to certain marriages; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

(Afrikaans text signed by the State President.) (Assented to 25 February 1988.)

E IT ENACTED by the State President and the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, as follows:―

1. Section 22 of the Black Administration Act, 1927, is hereby amended—

by the substitution for subsection (1) of the following subsection: “ (1) A man and a woman between whom a customary union subsists are competent to contract a marriage with each other if the man is not also a partner in a subsisting customary union with another woman. ”;

by the substitution for subsection (2) of the following subsection: “ (2) Subject to subsection (1), no person who is a partner in a customary union shall be competent to contract a marriage during the subsistence of that union. ”;

by the substitution for subsection (3) of the following subsection: “ (3) No marriage ofﬁcer shall solemnize the marriage of a Black man unless he has first taken from him a declaration to the effect that he is not a partner in a customary union with any woman other than the one he intends marrying. ”;

by the substitution for subsection (5) of the following subsection: “ (5) A Black man who wilfully makes a false declaration to a marriage officer with regard to the existence or not of a customary union between him and any woman, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to the penalties which may by law be imposed for perjury. ”;

by the deletion of subsection (6); and

by the substitution for subsection (7) of the following subsection: “(7) No marriage contracted after the commencement of this Act but before the commencement of the Marriage and Matrimonial Property Law Amendment