DIVORCE AMENDMENT BILL HEADS TO PARLIAMENT

DIVORCE AMENDMENT BILL HEADS TO PARLIAMENT

• 23 June 2023
• Family Law
• SA Legal Academy

In anticipation of the Divorce Amendment Bill’s imminent introduction in Parliament, an explanatory summary of its contents has been gazetted in keeping with standard procedural requirements. This follows Cabinet’s approval of the Bill during a meeting on 21 June 2023.

The Bill seeks to respond to a June 2022 Constitutional Court ruling recognising the need for and importance of protecting Muslim women in Muslim marriages dissolved in terms of the Divorce Act, 1979 - as well as the minor and dependent children of such marriages. This is noting that Muslim marriages are not registered as civil marriages and therefore not deemed valid under the prevailing legislation.

With that in mind, according to a media statement on the Cabinet meeting at which the Bill was approved it provides for:

• the redistribution of assets on the dissolution of a Muslim marriage, and
• the forfeiture of its ‘patrimonial benefits’.

Please click the links below for more information:

• explanatory summary
• Constitutional Court ruling
• Cabinet media statement

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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