AL JAMA-AH Party has delivered on its 2019 promise to South African Muslims, that should the party win a seat in National Parliament, it would fight for their rights in terms of Muslim marriages, in order to restore the dignity of Muslim wives and by extension, their families.
Al Jama-ah fought hard to see this promise realised, until finally, the Registration of Muslim Marriages was approved by the National Cabinet and given effect to by a circular issued by the Department of Home Affairs on the 27 June 2023.
This achievement was only made possible as a result of Al Jama-ah’s pressure on the ruling ANC, and it’s lobbying for the support of the other political parties, winning them over through their persuasive Constitutional arguments, until the ANC finally relented. Such is the dynamic within this contested political space, and Al Jama-ah is becoming all the more adept at representing our constituencies’ interests and achieving successful outcomes, Algamdoeliellaah (All praise and thanks be to God).
After the issuance of the circular, the Party did not leave it there. Al Jama-ah established ‘oversight desks’ at four DHA offices (Mitchells Plain and Wynberg in the Western Cape; Harrison Street in Johannesburg and Umgeni Road in Durban). We identified that our marriages are being registered as a Customary Marriage instead of a Muslim Marriage.
With the different theological and customary premises and processes associated with the two types of marriages, which would include the application of the Divorce Act to Customary Marriages without quarrel, for example, and the requirement for the payment of lobola to the bride’s family in contrast to the payment of the mahr to the bride in Muslim marriages for validity, this faux pas will likely result in legal complexities and negative consequences for the Muslim persons involved, and this should be avoided at all costs.
Al Jama-ah is vigilantly monitoring the process and is preparing further legal reforms to ensure the complete protection of Muslim spouses, while at the same time, continuing its battle to protect the tenets of the Islamic faith from corruption and subjugation within a non-Islamic legal environment.
The need for Al Jama-ah in this space, as the ONLY party which has taken up this fight for our communities, is glaringly evident.
Recently, the ruling party has bulldozed the enactment of the recent amendments to the Divorce Act, which now forces Muslim spouses to subject themselves to the whole Divorce Act, implemented through the courts, where the procedure is contrary to Islamic law. This decision by the ANC over-reaches and extends beyond what the Constitutional Court has ordered, because amendments to three (3) sections of the Act was only required to ensure the protection of the rights of women and children in Muslim marriages. It has become evident that the ruling party panders to anti-Islamic forces despite clear expressions to and from Muslim communities.
Al Jama-ah will continue its fight to ensure that legislative enactments do not violate fundamental Islamic laws, and consequently, that they do not violate the Constitution. Within an increasingly Islamophobic and anti-theological paradigm, champions for the rights of Muslims and all God-fearing persons is of the utmost importance. Al Jama-ah has proven that it is the only party that is truly unafraid to champion the cause of morality, ethics, and God consciousness. It is because of this, that Al Jama-ah stands on the precipice of the next democratic era, in both triumph and hope.
