the following words appear therein immediately after the word ‘marriage’:
‘or both members of a permanent same-sex life partnership are joint adoptive parents of a minor child’.”
The constitutional context
[18]Recognition of the fact that many children are not brought up by their biological parents is embodied in section 28(1)(b) of our Constitution which guarantees a child’s right to “family or parental care”. Family care includes care by the extended family of a child, which is an important feature of South African family life. It is clear from section 28(1)(b) that the Constitution recognises that family life is important to the well-being of all children. Adoption is a valuable way of affording children the benefits of family life which might not otherwise be available to them.
[19]The institutions of marriage and family are important social pillars that provide for security, support and companionship between members of our society and play a pivotal role in the rearing of children. However, we must approach the issues in the present matter on the basis that family life as contemplated by the Constitution can be provided in different ways and that legal conceptions of the family and what constitutes family life should change as social practices and traditions change.[1] I turn now to consider the constitutionality of the impugned provisions.
- ↑ See Dawood and Another; Shalabi and Another; Thomas and Another v Minister of Home Affairs and Others 2000 (3) SA 936 (CC); 2000 (8) BCLR 837 (CC) at para 31; National Coalition v Minister of Home Affairs, above note 10 at para 47–8; and Ex Parte Chairperson of the Constitutional Assembly: In re Certification of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 (4) SA 744 (CC), 1996 (10) BCLR 1253 (CC) at para 99.
