Should SA raise consent age to 21?

THE National Assembly's Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs has called for patience in the harmonisation of the country's marriage laws after claims emerged that there were calls to increase the consent age to 21.

- LOYISO SIDIMBA

The Marriage Bill seeks to bring the country's separate marriage laws in line with several rulings of the Constitutional Court obtained by progressive non-governmental organisations.

It lays bare requirements for monogamous and polygamous marriages, designation of marriage officers, solemnisation and registration of marriages as well as the proprietary consequences and the dissolution of marriages, and provides for offences and penalties arising from not abiding with the proposed law, once it is promulgated.

However, this week it emerged that during the public hearings in the Eastern Cape, concerns were raised that the consent age of 18 could be inappropriate as it is the period teenagers may be still at school.

IOL reported that some Eastern Cape residents argued that 18 was still too young to get married as most youths this age were still at school and proposed an increase to 21.