The new book is almost there….Generation, Gender and Negotiating Custom in South Africa. The book draws on a range of empirical studies to reveal the…
Tag: Customary Marriage Project
Generation, Gender and Negotiating Custom (forthcoming, 2021) Routledge
The forthcoming book published by Routledge, explores the ways men and women negotiate customary practices in their daily lives in South Africa. The chapters describe…
Understanding Polygamous marriages in South Africa
Radio Guest on 702, with Aubrey Masango: Polygamy in South Africa, 19 July 2019
Human rights and cultural practices
‘The law is the way it is. If you try to apply it directly to tradition, you will find that it is not a perfect fit and will affect a lot of [cultural] practices such as initiation.” This is the opinion of Siya (not her real name), a 32-year-old married Tsonga schoolteacher in Limpopo. The sentiment was shared by most people who took part in an investigation of the clash between “harmful” cultural practices and constitutional principles. (“Harmful” is in inverted commas to indicate the ambiguous nature of the so-called harm of cultural practices.)
Customary law and the problems it causes for widows
Associate Professor, Dr Elena Moore speaks to Morio Sanyane about Customary law and the problems it poses to widows & whether the Customary Marriages Act needs to be amended in order to protect women. Dr Moore also speaks about the possibility of Children whether they are born in marriage or out of it who also stand to lose out on their inheritances.
Customary wives in fight against marital abuse
Meko and Sandiswa, both in their late 40s, have been part of a customary marriage for more than 15 years. Meko is violent and very controlling whenever he gets drunk.
Sandiswa eventually broke with customary practice and sought help from the state legal system. First she went to the police station and then to the magistrate.
“One time he became violent with me and I took him to court and he almost got arrested,” she said.
Customary law can pose problems for widows
‘I am not the first that this has happened to. Which is why I am fired up and encouraged by the spirits of all the widows who have been marginalised by patriarchal in-laws in moments of grief and stripped of their dignity and the very basic need to grieve.”
Inheritance: women are still cut out
Penda lives in a village in Limpopo with her three children and another dependant. When her mother died she should have shared the inheritance of their parents’ home with her brother. Instead, he claimed the home as his and she was forced to leave.
This is the kind of situation that the government sought to stop in 2004 when the Constitutional Court of South Africa decided the high profile case called Bhe v Magistrate Khayelitsha.
What happens when customary marriage goes wrong?
Tando Mabunu-Mandela and Mandla Mandela have been embroiled in a bitter divorce since 2009. They were married in community of property in 2004. Mabunu-Mandela claims she is entitled to half of Mandla’s assets which might include R3m left to Mandla Mandela by Madiba.
Customary marriage: is the law working?
Under apartheid, most married women in South Africa were regarded in law as minors, under the guardianship of their male relatives or their husbands. New laws since 1994 set out to change that. But are the new laws working? Prof. Chuma Himonga, the National Research Foundation Chair in Customary Law and Elena Moore of the University of Cape Town conducted a study to find out.