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Summary
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has ruled that husbands can legally take their wives’ surnames, striking down a discriminatory law that only women should do so. The judgment followed a challenge by two couples who argued the rule was outdated and patriarchal, and the court agreed it violated constitutional equality rights.
c one of South Africa’s highest courts, ruled on September 11, 2025, that men can now take their wives’ surnames, removing the law that previously barred them from doing so.
The Constitutional Court ruled that the law was discriminatory and was gender-based discrimination.
According to the SABC report, the case was brought forward by two couples. Henry van der Merwe was denied the right to take the surname of his wife, Jana Jordaan, while Andreas Nicolas Bornman could not hyphenate his surname to include Donnelly, the surname of his wife, Jess Donnelly-Bornman.
The two couples had argued that the law was archaic and patriarchal, and violated equality rights enshrined in the constitution that South Africa adopted at the end of white-minority rule.
They successfully challenged the law in a lower court, the High Court, but asked the Constitutional Court to confirm its ruling.
The court found that the law violates constitutional guarantees of equality by providing provisions for women to change their surname but not for men.
With this ruling, Parliament must now amend the Births and Deaths Registration Act and its regulations.
The Free State Society of Advocates supported the case, arguing that the law perpetuated outdated stereotypes.
Neither the Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber nor the Justice Minister Mamoloko Kubayi opposed the application.
