South Africa’s Constitutional Court has ruled that men can legally adopt their wives’ surnames, striking down parts of the Births and Deaths Registration Act as unconstitutional for gender-based discrimination.
The decision follows a case brought in March by couples Jana Jordaan and Henry Van Der Merwe, and Jess Donnelly-Bornman and Andreas Nicolas Bornman. Van Der Merwe was previously denied the right to take Jordaan’s surname, while Bornman was blocked from hyphenating his surname with Donnelly’s.
Although the Free State High Court had earlier declared the law invalid, Thursday’s ruling by the Constitutional Court was required to confirm the decision and make it binding.
