South Africa’s Christian fundamentalist African Christian Democratic Party says it hopes that the Constitutional Court will rule in favour of the wishes of the majority of South Africans — and oppose same-sex marriages.
ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe — who leads a team of six MPs — said as the court hears the case of the minister of home affairs versus Fourie and Bonthuys on Tuesday and Wednesday, ”we as the ACDP will be supporting government and the Marriage Alliance in their quest to protect the sanctity of marriage as being between a male and female”.
Three years ago, the Pretoria High Court dismissed an application by a lesbian couple to have their marriage legalised.
Marie Fourie and her partner, Marie Bonthuys, brought an urgent application to the court, but Judge Pierre Roux dismissed it, saying that a marriage is between a man and a woman.
Last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal handed down its judgement in the case Fourie and Bonthuys v The Minister of Home Affairs. The court judgement extended the common-law definition of marriage to include unions of same-sex partners.
The Department of Home Affairs then decided to ask the Constitutional Court ”to pronounce on the matter so that there is finality and consequently clear guidelines set for both the Law Commission and Parliament in completing its work”.
On Monday, Meshoe — whose party has expressed conservative views on sexual matters in general — said: ”It is no secret that this view is shared and supported not only by Christians and other major religious groups, but also by many other ordinary South Africans.
”By upholding the definition of marriage as being between a male and female, the Constitutional Court will be in line with the majority of nations across the world that have upheld this view.
”The ACDP has continually said that we do not support the legalisation of so-called gay marriages, as this, among other things, will lead to the acceleration of the breakdown of the family, meaning that our country faces severe degeneration of morals and a high divorce rate.
”We trust that the Constitutional Court will rule in favour of the wishes of the majority of South Africans,” Meshoe argued. — I-Net Bridge