Johannesburg - More than 170 women have filled out a form in the past week indicating the Department of Home Affairs had changed their surnames against their will after they got married.
A petition was set up after journalist Sarah Emily Wild took to social media when she found out during the municipal elections her surname had been changed to her husband’s.
Wild, along with the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), set up a questionnaire for women in the same position.
They hope to take the matter to the Equality Court.
Marriage registration forms allow women three options: keeping their own surname, taking their husband’s surname, or creating a double-barrelled surname.
Wild said she was angry that her choice - to keep her own name - had been ignored.
She was convinced Home Affairs officials were deliberately changing women’s names.
“The reason I’m having this fight is because they changed my name against my will. I gave Home Affairs an instruction and they chose to ignore it,” Wild said.
She said despite Home Affairs spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete telling a radio station the department would contact her to resolve the issue, she was still waiting to hear from them.
Tshwete said sometimes errors of this nature occurred when the marriage registration form wasn’t properly filled in by the people officiating at weddings.
Candidate attorney Sally Hurt from the LRC said the issue was a national one that affected women of all races.
“It might be something really small that needs to be fixed on Home Affairs’s part. I don’t think it’s done maliciously,” she added.
She said changing someone’s surname without their consent had various consequences and infringed on a number of rights, including:
* The right to dignity, because a clearly articulated preference was being disregarded.
* The right to equality, because this was happening to women, not men.
* The right to vote, because at least one case had been reported where a woman could not vote due to her surname being changed.
* The right to freedom of movement, because of difficulty when trying to travel in and out of the country.
Financial and legal consequences, because people were unable to access bank details or details on the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission.
Inability to access UIF when unemployed or going on maternity leave because the woman’s surname would not match the surname listed at the Department of Labour.
Implications for children when their mother’s name on their birth certificate was different.
Wild, who got married in April, said she had chosen to keep her maiden surname because it was linked to her professional identity as a writer and journalist.
“It’s also who I am. It’s a fundamental and important part of my identity,” she said.
She was concerned about the repercussions of the unwanted name change.
“As a freelancer, I have to do my tax return. It’s going to be a pain if I have a name that’s different to my bank account and different to my ID.”
The Star