More than 40 South African women have discovered that they had been married without their knowledge, the Home Affairs Department said on Thursday.
They were among about 2 000 women checking their marital status on the department’s records, as part of a campaign to curb the problem of women being unknowingly married to foreigners.
The campaign began last Tuesday. The department would assist victims of such unions to expunge their marriages at no cost, it said in a statement in Pretoria.
”We have already made arrangements with the Department of Justice where we are able to de-register or expunge a marriage without the long process of having to go to court, as long as the people concerned satisfy the requirements set out.”
The department reiterated its concern about ”the spate of fraudulent marriages or marriages of convenience” around the country, particularly in Mpumalanga.
It urged South African women to check that their marital status was correctly reflected on the department’s books. – Sapa