South Africa’s Constitutional Court has struck down gender-discriminatory marriage laws, ruling that husbands have the right to adopt their wives’ surnames or create hyphenated names combining both partners’ surnames.
The landmark decision declared Section 26(1)(a) to (c) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act unconstitutional, finding that the law unfairly discriminated against men by denying them naming rights traditionally afforded only to women.
The case was brought by two couples: Jana Jordaan and Henry Van Der Merwe, and Jess Donnelly-Bornman and Andreas Nicolas Bornman. Van Der Merwe had been refused permission to take his wife’s surname, while Bornman was denied the right to hyphenate his surname to include his wife’s maiden name.
The couples initially won their challenge in the Free State Division of the High Court in March, but constitutional law required the Constitutional Court to confirm the invalidity of the discriminatory provisions before the ruling could take legal effect.
This decision represents a significant step toward gender equality in South African marriage law, ensuring that both spouses have equal rights when choosing their married surnames.
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