Equal worth

THE serendipity of the moment could not have been more pronounced when, on Monday, the day before Women’s Day, the high court in Limpopo made a ruling that should have positive ramifications for thousands of women in polygamous marriages.

Its ruling that these women now have rights equal to those who enter into civil unions is remarkable because it reminds us again of the paramountcy of the constitution and the values of our supreme law.

This would not be the first time that, where there has been a conflict between the laws of custom or religion and common law, the constitution is shown to be the foundation on which contradictory legal systems may co-exist.

In allowing for freedom of religious practices and freedom of custom, it enshrines traditional rites – as long as these are not in conflict with its provisions.

Central to these are that all of us are equal before the law, and so, in terms of marriages, this has now extended very importantly to the key issues of inheritance and the duty of support. That the Limpopo High Court should have made its landmark ruling in Women’s Month matters, because it feels as if it is only once a year that we speak about the structural barriers of patriarchy.

And surely that section of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act which the court found unjustifiably discriminated against women, had everything to do with this.

It treated gender, race and social origin as negative aspects of a life. This cannot be so.

The judgment, relating as it does to women who entered into polygamous customary marriages before November 2000, could especially change the outlook for many older women living inr circumstances of poverty in the rural areas. They and their children are now, finally, protected in terms of whatever assets might be available.

At the heart of this judgment, then, is a concept of equal worth, one in which those women kept in chains may now be assisted to set themselves free.

Let’s celebrate it.