South African men can now adopt wife's surname, court rules: Details here

Another giant step towards gender equality: the South African Constitutional Court has ruled on a landmark judgement that the South African men now have the right to adopt their wives’ surnames upon marriage.

This historic judgement comes after a hiatus in a legal saga fought by two couples, who filed their case in March this year.

The applicants, Jana Jordaan, Henry Van Der Merwe, Jess Donnelly-Bornman, and Andreas Nicolas Bornman, seek a court confirmation of invalidity against the discriminatory section.

What is the act all about?

The section to which the two couples filed is named section 26 (1)(A) to (C) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 51 of 1992.

This constitutional article regulates the amendment of the forenames and surnames of South African citizens.

The couple had challenged the law successfully in the Free State Division of the High Court.

But for that matter, to allow husbands of South African citizens to take surnames of their wives, it required final wording from the constitutional court.

And, in this context, the High Court ruled a landmark judgement that read:

"Section 26(1)(A) and Regulation 18(2)(a) are unconstitutional and discriminatory in nature based on gender, as they did not allow men to change their surnames after a change in marital status.”

Furthermore, the court has suspended the declaration of invalidity for 24 months to allow parliament enough time to make changes to the law to comply with the constitution.

During this two-year period, an interim remedy will allow both men and women to change their surnames upon marriage.

This temporary relief from the Constitutional Court will be one step further for promoting inclusiveness and ending gender-based discrimination.