Indignity for many women

THE ill-treatment of women in polygamous marriages in South African politics should fill us with despair as government’s failure to meet a twoyear deadline to change the law to protect women in polygamous marriages has once more made headlines.

In November 2017, the Constitutional Court ordered government to amend the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act to ensure the equitable distribution of assets should a spouse in a polygamous marriage die. Sadly, the law was never changed.

Six weeks before the expiry of the deadline set in 2017, the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services approached the Constitutional Court seeking another 12 months’ extension.

He provided several reasons for the failure to change the law, including that 2018 and 2019 were difficult years in the legislative process due to the national elections. He also noted that, because the legislation in question deals with customary law, it will be required to follow elaborate processes which include consideration of further input from the National House of Traditional Leaders.

Based on the court judgment in 2017, we all knew that this law unjustifiably limits the right to dignity as well as the right not to be discriminated against unfairly. And so, how come traditional leaders have not pressed Parliament to amendment legislation in compliance with the court order in order to vindicate the constitutional rights? How come this matter never featured as a priority in the national and provincial houses of traditional leaders? What account can traditional leaders provide on this?

I still remember very well. It was in 2017 at the Constitutional Court when I bumped into two acquaintances. They were both members of the National House of Traditional Leaders and were standing outside the main entrance to the court.

They had been inside, to hear the judgement on this matter challenging the constitutionality of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act. But immediately after the judgment was delivered, they were lingering on the pavement, drawn in by the political energy of the occasion, and yet, simultaneously repelled, as though by an invisible force.

I think often of their faces, of the pain and bewilderment, every time the ANC-led government, as well as the national and provincial houses of traditional leaders’ derisory handling of the overdue legislative amendments returns to the headlines.

Every woman in a polygamous marriage has her own family story – of love and conflict, of threats and losses, but also of community and belonging.

My own family’s journey in growing up in a polygamous marriage may explain my own shock at the government’s failure to meet the two-year deadline to change the law to protect women in polygamous marriages.

A contention that 2018 and 2019 were atypical years in the legislative process due to the 2019 elections which caused inevitable interruptions and changed the ordinary deadlines for government departments to submit Bills to be passed is unacceptable, given a situation where other conservative and not time-sensitive Bills were given priority.

Failure to change the law as directed by courts should be a reminder that, for many in South Africa, the experience of inequality and indignity is still the norm and not the exception.