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MEDIA MIRROR
Permanent residency for foreign partners
Agence
France Press reported on 2nd December that the South
African Constitutional Court said that the foreign partners
of South African gays and lesbians can acquire permanent
residency in the same way as those in heterosexual relationships.
The
court, the highest in the country, rejected a government
department appeal as Judge Laurie Ackermann ruled that
it is unconstitutional to deny homosexual people the
same rights as heterosexuals. The ruling applies for
couples which intend to cohabit permanently, the court
said. It upholds a similar decision in February by the
Cape High Court. The lower court’s decision, against
which the Department of Home Affairs had appealed, had
to be ratified by the Constitutional Court as it involved
a law, the Aliens Control Act.
Aspects
of the act were challenged in August by six gay couples,
the independent National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian
Equality and the government-appointed Commission for
Gender Equality.
Until
now the act has only allowed married partners of South
African citizens to live and work in the country, leading
the applicants to claim discrimination on the grounds
of sexual orientation and marital status.
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The
coalition welcomed the court ruling and said that it
knew of at least 50 couples who had been awaiting the
outcome of the case.
South
Africa’s 1996 constitution upholds gay rights but activists
are now pushing for same sex marriages and the right
of gay couples to adopt children.
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