By Rivonia Naidu
Protests planned for Saturday to show disapproval over laws that would recognise same-sex marriages and include them in the Marriage Act have escalated across the country and will carry on until mid-October.
Although the mass marches planned for major cities on Staurday will go ahead as planned in Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, there will be additional marches on September 30 in Polokwane and on October 7 in Pretoria.
In 2005 the Constitutional Court ruled that Section 30 (1) of the Marriage Act was unconstitutional because the wording allowed only for marriages between men and women.
Continues Below ↓
'Voluntary union of a man and a woman' The court gave parliament until December 2006 to include the words "or spouse" after the words "wife" or "husband" in the relevant parts of the Act.
But the Marriage Alliance of South Africa (Masa), who organised the mass action, wants the definition of marriage to be the "voluntary union of a man and a woman" and for parliament to adopt ordinary legislation recognising civil or same-sex unions apart from the definition of marriage.
Masa's Durban regional co-ordinator, Pastor Colin la Foy said a constitutional amendment would satisfy the concerns of the majority and parliament would be charged with comprising legislation, which would satisfy the needs of the gay community.
"We believe that this would be the most democratic way of resolving the issue. It would be a travesty if what Christians consider a sacred institution of marriage between a man and a woman were not properly defined as such by the Constitutional Court," he said.
In light of this, Masa had decided to mobilise Christians around the country to demonstrate that the majority of South Africans are not in favour of abandoning the basic beliefs of a heterosexual marriage, which is recognised by world religions as the cornerstone of society.
The Durban march will start at 9.30am in Ordnance Road, next to the Workshop.
-
This article was originally published on page 1 of Daily News on September 15, 2006
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
