Mothers' Consent No Longer Needed for Fathers to Register Their Kids: “A Game Changer”

• Section 10 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act has been declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of South Africa
• The Act forbids unmarried men from registering their children under their surname without gaining prior consent from the child's mother
• As always, there has been differing in the opinions of social media users who were anything but shy to share their opinions

JOHANNESBURG - The Constitutional Court has now declared Section 10 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act unconstitutional. Although it was a minority ruling, retiring Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng shared a different opinion to the other eight judges.

Section 10 of the Act reportedly disfavours against babies that are born out of wedlock. This is due to the fact that the rights men have to register their children under their surnames are limited.

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According to News24, a disagreement was put forth before the court that a man who is not married can be trusted however an unmarried father may warrant suspicion. The report explained that a man cannot simply say he is the father of the child without getting confirmation or hearing from the child's mother first.

IOL reported that while father's who are unmarried can now register the child they are still not allowed to make changes to any information on existing birth certificates.

Mzansi cannot grasp how this law is unconstitutional

@Mihlalij19 said:

"This is gonna cause confusion especially when she doesn't want him in her life."

@Look2Windwards believes:

"Yoh, Mogoeng now wants to destroy us using his religion or him bias originating from home religious beliefs!"

@Iam_lifa wrote:

"This is huge. A game-changer."

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Mzansi has had its say, 8 candidates nominated for Chief Justice post, 2 face impeachment

Previously, Briefly News reported that President Cyril Ramaphosa is no step closer to appointing the next Constitutional Court Chief Justice as Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng gives up his tenure for retirement.

For the first time, Ramaphosa allowed the public to bring forward names of candidates they would like to see as the next Chief Justice. The nominations had to meet certain criteria before they could be considered as suitable candidates.

The office of the Presidency has announced the prospective candidates and they included well-known figures such as the current Acting Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, who is the only candidate without a judicial background and Judge President John Hlophe who is on the verge of impeachment.

Like Hlophe, Mkhwebane is also set to have a trial of impeachment.

Source: Briefly News