Friday, October 25, 2002
South African lawmakers discuss recognition of domestic partners
A story released today by Business Day reports that South Africa’s Constitutional Court ruling that the same-sex partners of judges should enjoy the same benefits as partners of married judges has got Parliament's justice committee wondering how to recognize these partners in law.
High court judge Kathy Satchwell took government to court on the issue of same-sex partners having access to the benefits of their deceased partners and won. Now the law has to be amended to accommodate the court ruling.
Johnny de Lange, chairman of the justice portfolio committee, said it was easy to deal with married judges because if they divorced, then the break-up of the union was legally defined.
He asked how the law should provide for a judge becoming "departnered" or "despoused" as opposed to "divorced".
The bill would provide that unmarried judges could "register" a partner.
De Lange said provision should also be made for the deregistration of partners so that if a judge's relationship broke up, the registration of a same-sex partner could be reversed.
