South Africa - How To Register Customary Marriage

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Procedure

Apply In-Person:

1. To apply for registering a customary marriage in person, the couple must visit any nearest office of Department of Home Affairs or approach a traditional leader in his/her province.
2. Please click on the following link for the address and contact information of the Department of Home Affairs Offices: Link Click on the province name which is applicable to you and you will get the details according to that.
3. Visit the DHA office and get the application form for registering a customary marriage (BI-1699) from the concerned department.
4. Make sure that you have all the documents that are listed in the “Required Documents” section of this page.
5. Also remember, at least one witness from each of the couple’s family should be present along with the spouses.
6. Complete the application form with required information and attach all the required documents with the form.
7. Submit it at the concerned office of the Home Affairs Department and pay the prescribed fees as instructed.
8. An acknowledgement of receipt BI-1700 will then be issued by the Department. And your application will move forward for further processes.
9. After the completion of all necessary processes, you will be issued with a marriage certificate for your customary marriage.

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Required Documents

• Completed BI-1699 Form
• Proof of payment
• Identity documents of the couple
• Copy of Lobola agreement (if available)
• Written consent of both parents/legal guardian or Commissioner of Child Welfare or judge (for minors)

Office Locations & Contacts

Department of Home Affairs - Head Office
Physical Address : Hallmark Building,
230 Johannes Ramokhoase,
Pretoria,
Gauteng,
0001,
South Africa.
Postal Adress : Private Bag X114,
Pretoria,
0001,
Phone: 012 406 2500
Email: [email protected]
Website ,Link 2

Department Of Home Affairs Offices

Eligibility

• Any marriage that is negotiated, entered into or celebrated in accordance with customary law, can be applied to get registered.
• You must register your customary marriage within three months of the date of celebration or entering into the marriage to make it legal.
• For registering a customary marriage, consent of both prospective spouses is mandatory.
• The prospective spouses must be above the age of 18 years for getting registered at the DHA or by a traditional leader, unless a prescribed consent has been submitted for minors.

Fees

First issue of an abridged marriage certificate is free of cost.

Validity

Explain the time until which the certificate/document is valid.
e.g. Birth Certificate Valid Forever

Documents to Use

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Sample Documents

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Processing Time

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Related Videos

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications.
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Please remove the '&' inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver,
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.g In the following url 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M' Video ID is 'Y0US7oR_t3M'.

Instructions

• If the spouses were minors (or one was a minor) at the time of the customary marriage, the parents should also be present when the request to register the marriage is made.

• The parents of a prospective spouse who is a minor must consent to the marriage. If he/she has no parents, then his or her legal guardian must consent.

• If the parents or legal guardian cannot consent, a Commissioner of Child Welfare can be approached for consent. Where consent is refused by either of the parents, the legal guardian or the Commissioner of Child Welfare pr a judge of the High Court may consider granting consent.

Required Information

• Particulars of the applicant
• Identity number of the applicant
• Particulars of the prospective spouse
• Identity number of the prospective spouse

Need for the Document

• In South Africa, the definition of a customary marriage is one that is “negotiated, celebrated or concluded according to any of the systems of indigenous African customary law which exist in South Africa”. This does not include marriages concluded in accordance with Hindu, Muslim or other religious rites.
• And a customary marriage must be registered or made aware to the Department of Home Affairs according to the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act.

Information which might help

• If either of the prospective spouses is already a spouse in a civil marriage, a customary marriage cannot be entered into during the subsistence of the civil marriage.

• Although there is no restriction on the number of customary marriages that a man may enter into, no further customary marriage may be entered into unless an order of court regulating the future matrimonial property system of his marriages has been obtained.

Other uses of the Document/Certificate

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e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

External Links

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Others

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