PART VI M ISCELLANEOUS 36. 37. Regulations. Savings. AN ACT to consolidate and amend the laws relating to the solemnization of marriages and matters incidental thereto. [Date of commencement: 1st March, 1965.] PART I P RELIMINARY 1 2 Short title This Act may be cited as the Marriage Act [Chapter 5:11]. Interpretation In this Act— “magistrate” means any magistrate appointed in terms of the Magistrates Court Act [Chapter 7:10]; “marriage” means a marriage under this Act; “marriage licence” means a licence to marry issued in terms of section sixteen; “marriage officer” means any person who is a marriage officer by virtue of this Act; “Minister” means the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs or any other Minister to whom the President may, from time to time, assign the administration of this Act; “minister of religion” means a person designated and registered as a marriage officer in terms of section four; “prior law” means the Marriage Act [Chapter 177 of 1963] or the Validation of Marriages Act [Chapter 180 of 1963]; “Registrar” means the Registrar of Marriages referred to in section thirty. PART II MARRIAGE OFFICERS 3 Magistrate to be marriage officer for district Every magistrate shall, by virtue of his office and so long as he holds such office, be a marriage officer for the district in which he holds office. 4 Designation of ministers of religion and other persons as marriage officers (1) The Minister may, at the request of the authority governing any religious denomination or organization, designate any person holding a responsible position in any such religious denomination or organization to be a marriage officer for the purpose of solemnizing marriages according to Christian, Jewish, Islamic or Hindoo rites or the rites of any religion, and such person shall, for the purposes of this Act, be known as a minister of religion. (2) The Registrar shall keep a register in the prescribed manner of all persons designated by the Minister in terms of subsection (1) as marriage officers. 5 Certain persons may in certain circumstances be deemed to have been marriage officers (1) Whenever any person has acted as a marriage officer during any period in respect of which he was not a marriage officer under this Act or a prior law, and the Minister is satisfied that such person did so in the bona fide belief that he was a marriage officer during that period, he may direct in writing that such person shall for all purposes be deemed to have been a marriage officer during such period under this Act or a prior law, as the case may be. (2) Any marriage solemnized during such period by any person who is in terms of a direction under subsection (1) deemed to have been a marriage officer in respect thereof, shall, if such marriage was in every other respect solemnized in accordance with this Act or a prior law, as the case may be, and there was no lawful impediment thereto, be as valid and binding as it would have been if such person had been a marriage officer in respect of such period. (3) Nothing in subsection (1) contained shall be construed as relieving any person, in respect of whom a direction has been issued thereunder, from the liability to prosecution for any offence committed by him. 6 Change of name of religious denomination or organization and amalgamation of religious denominations or organizations (1) A change in the name of a religious denomination or organization or the amalgamation of a religious denomination or organization with any other religious denomination or organization shall not affect the designation as a marriage officer of any person who was so designated by virtue of his occupying any post or holding any position in any such religious denomination or organization.