S.A. gives small hint of race-law change

Press, 9 August 1980, Page 8

S.A. gives small hint of race-law change

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg At last love has found a way through South Africa’s stringent mixed-marriage laws, but the path still looks far from smooth. An Interior Department [spokesman confirmed that the Government had allowed Coloured (mixed race); .mother-of-six, Susan Green,! land a white fitter, Aubrey! Jooste, to get married this week. The spokesman rejected

the suggestion that the hisi toric decision meant his deIpartment had tacitly author-1 ised an event which appear-} ed to knock sideways the! Mixed Marriages Act, one of the cornerstones of South Africa’s apartheid system. , He explained . the seeming contradiction by saying that the new Mrs Jooste had ap-[ plied for reclassification as i white. I “We told her that We; would not take steps if she! married while we were still proceeding with our investi-l

gation for the reclassification she requested,” the spokesman said. However, the decision may signal some softening of the official interpretation of the Mixed Marriages Act, which along with immorality laws banning sex between different races has caused I untold misery and consid-j ■erable adverse publicity! labroad. ! The bride and groom toasted each other with

champagne in their Cape Town home after the Inter- . ior Department decision ended six months of uncer-i i tainty. | I Mrs Jooste, who is 46, [was previously married to a! white man who died in February. A magistrate refused to let her remarry, ’when, he examined her, "book of life" (identity! papers) and found that she' had been reclassified from! [white to Coloured (the ; classifications are based on ■ [skin colour). I. She then applied to the : [Government to be reclassi- ! Ified again and was told to;

submit colour photographs of herself. Mrs Jooste said she was puzzled that the department had given her permission to marry but not yet reclassified her white. The Johannesburg “Citizen” newspaper, which supports the National Party | Government, commented in .an editorial on the affairs: (“At least the woman has; been able to marry her| white lover. And that shows a degree of understanding that has been too often lacking in decisions under the race classification or mixed | marriages acts.” Last year, the Prime Minister (Mr Pieter Botha) caused a storm in diehard apartheid circles when he : said he was willing to consider changing the laws bar- [ ring sex or marriage across [the colour line. More than 10,000 people are estimated to have been convicted under the South [African Immorality Act since 1950. But the laws have not been so rigorously applied recently.