The Family in a Democratic South Africa: Its Constitutional Position

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Periodical article

Title:	The Family in a Democratic South Africa: Its Constitutional Position
Author:	Sachs, A.
Year:	1990
Periodical:	Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity
Issue:	8
Pages:	40-54
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	family law Law, Legal Issues, and Human Rights Family Life
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10130950.1990.9676165
Abstract:	The damage done to the African family in South Africa has been the result of deliberate State policy and calculation. The restoration of African family life, therefore, has relatively little to do with family law and very much with the general structures of apartheid law, notably the migrant labour system. The author first examines the wider legislative context for the transformation of family law. Then he tackles one of the main difficulties to be overcome in transforming family law: the variety of marriage systems. Assuming that some form of unitary administration of family law is going to be adopted, he advances some ideas as to how the judicial structures can be transformed so as to make them more democratic and more culturally sensitive. Paper presented at the Malibongwe Conference held in Amsterdam in January 1990. The paper is followed by a response by Andrew Charman, who criticizes Sachs' abstract and empiricist interpretation of the family. (p. 55-60, bibliogr., notes, ref.).