The Citizen has reported that the Germiston Home Affairs office has apparently refused to marry a gay couple.
The newspaper said that Alexander Bruce (25) and Jaco van der Walt (19) decided to get married after being together for a year and approached the Germiston Home Affairs office on December 17 last year.
They booked an appointment to marry on January 2 at the same office.
When they arrived on the day, however, an official allegedly laughed at the couple and told them that the Germiston office “only does ‘normal’ marriages”. He was also apparently unsure if same-sex marriages are legal.
The couple were then told by a supervisor to go to the Alberton Home Affairs office, where they are now planning to finally tie the knot.
“I am really upset about what happened, it was a slap in my face,” Van der Walt told the newspaper. “I was so excited about getting married and was really disappointed when we couldn’t go through with it.”
According to The Citizen the couple plan to take legal action against the Germiston Home Affairs office. An official told the newspaper that the office had no record of the appointment made by the men on December 17.
The Civil Union Act, which allows same-sex couples to marry in South Africa, came into force in December 2006.
10 Comments
HOME AFFAIRS REFUSES TO MARRY GAY COUPLE. Typical far-east mentality. Perhaps GERMiston was named after this polite Homely Affairs un-gentleman!
what else would you expect from living here in this hell-hole!?
can’t wait to leave…
response to “…”. it is total B.S what happened to this couple, however we still have it much sweeter here than most other places in the world. lets not forget what we still have here in SA and work with that.
suprise. well if SA took an anti gay stance with the UN ,of course our brain surgeons in government would say no….!
Typical. The fact that the stupid asshole was even unsure “if it were legal” just shows you how miserably incompetent the poor bastard is. I am amazed about how pathetic ALL our government offices and officials are. But then again, just look at the government itself and it all makes sense. Take them to court, and make a BIG deal of this. It is complete ignorance that causes this…
Home affairs refuses to marry a gay couple. How can dat official cruelly said Germiston office “only does ‘normal’ marriages”. What’s wrong with people. Can’t they accept the fact that we are also human beings. TAKE THEM TO COURT MAN.
This just shows how home affairs employees are incompetent
Crazy kids. 25 and 19 years old – that says it all… divorce at 21 after a night out on the town hahahaha
Get serious!
Dude, that’s a little unfair. I’ve known people with that age difference who were together at a similar age and have been together for 10 years!
Has anyone taken note that this article was published on 13 January 2009. The “related” article is new and should be a more pressing concern. It’s rather late to suggest taking Home Affairs to court. 5 years is a while, we can’t blame Zuma for the ignorance nor can we link this with how SA voted in the UN.
I am disheartened by the way Alexander and Jaco were treated and sincerely hope that Home Affairs staff are better trained now and have received sensitisation training. Although, I’m sure that was not required before the staff married inter-racial couples.
What we want to express outrage about is the fact that employees receive despicable treatment from their employers. This is unfair discrimination, probably unfair dismissal and needs to be addressed in order to give effect to our rights as employees and homosexuals.