/ 16 September 2006

Home affairs reassures Christians on marriage Bill

Home Affairs Department portfolio committee chairperson Patrick Chauke says he will not allow his religious beliefs to interfere with the way he and his committee deal with draft legislation on gay marriages.

He was speaking outside Parliament on Saturday, after receiving a memorandum from several thousand Christians who had marched through Cape Town’s city centre to protest against the Civil Unions Bill.

Organisers said the march, under the banner of the Marriage Alliance, was one of several being staged simultaneously in cities across the country.

Chauke told the crowd, who sang hymns, prayed and chanted ”hallelujah”, that some people thought politicians did not attend church.

However he and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) member of Parliament Steve Swart, who was standing alongside him and was one of the speakers, were ”staunch believers”.

He said the memo, which called for a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, would be tabled in Parliament, and the concerns it expressed taken on board.

He said he believed the Bill, drawn up in a bid to meet the Constitutional Court’s December 1 deadline for a law on homosexual marriages, ”balanced” the need of those ”who want to get into some kind of a union”.

”But I think as a church we have a responsibility. And we have demonstrated our responsibility today.”

Asked afterwards what church he belonged to, he said: ”That’s my private [business]. To say that I’m a believer does not mean I belong to a church. I may be attending a number of churches as I want, but I don’t have a church I like”.

Asked whether the Bill conflicted with his own personal beliefs, he said: ”I may not be able to answer you. Currently I’m stuck with the Bill, and I need to play my partial role in chairing these meetings until the Bill is finished.”

Addressing the marchers, Swart, who is a member of the justice portfolio committee, said the ACDP has consistently opposed redefining marriage to include same sex unions.

”The institution of marriage has been the cornerstone of civilised society for thousands of years. Traditional marriages, in which one man and one woman create a lasting community, pass on time-honoured family values to secure the future, and therefore are worthy of protection.”

The Marriage Alliance is made up of about 100 churches, denominations and religious bodies, including the Catholic, Anglican and Dutch Reformed churches, Rhema Ministries, His People Christian Church, and the Zion Christian Church.

The home affairs department’s portfolio committee was scheduled to begin countrywide public hearings on the bill with a meeting in Soweto on Tuesday, but Chauke said on Sunday this might not happen as planned.

It appears that the Bill may be the first piece of non-financial legislation to be subject to a first reading debate in the National Assembly, in terms of a resolution taken by the Assembly last week.

Chauke said this might impact on the programme for the public hearings.

Up to now, so-called ”money bills”, such as the Budget, are the only pieces of legislation that have gone through a first reading debate.

Other Bills are debated only at second reading stage. It is understood that the first reading debate proposal is meant to allow for more spontaneous interchange between MPs than that afforded by the rigid structure of a second reading debate.

Though a minister will still briefly introduce the Bill, there will be no formal speaker’s list. Members, identified by the presiding officer, will get three minutes each to address the House.

The whole debate is expected to last an hour. – Sapa