Page:Marriage Amendment Act 1968 from statute book.djvu/2

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Act No. 19, 1968

(b) any error, omission or oversight of any person who made any such publication or issued a special licence, but such marriage has in every other respect been solemnized in accordance with the provisions of this Act or, as the case may be, a former law, that marriage shall, provided there was no other lawful impediment thereto, be as valid and binding as it would have been if the said provisions had been strictly complied with.”.

Substitution of section 29 of Act 25 of 1961.

4. The following section is hereby substituted for section 29 of the principal Act:

“Time and place for and presence of parties and witnesses at solemnization of marriage and validation of certain marriages.

29. (1) A marriage officer may solemnize a marriage at any time on any day of the week but shall not be obliged to solemnize a marriage at any other time than between the hours of eight in the morning and four in the afternoon. (2) A marriage officer shall solemnize any marriage in a church or other building used for religious service, or in a public office or private dwelling-house, with open doors and in the presence of the parties themselves and at least two competent witnesses, but the foregoing provisions of this subsection shall not be construed as prohibiting a marriage officer from solemnizing a marriage in any place other than a place mentioned therein if the marriage must be solemnized in such other place by reason of the serious or longstanding illness of, or serious bodily injury to, one or both of the parties. (3) Every marriage― (a) which was solemnized in the Orange Free State or the Transvaal before the commencement of this Act in any place other than a place appointed by a prior law as a place where for the purposes of such law a marriage shall be solemnized; or (b) which by reason of the serious or longstanding illness of, or serious bodily injury to, one or both of the parties was solemnized before the commencement of the Marriage Amendment Act, 1968, in a place other than a place appointed by subsection (2) of this section as a place where for the purposes of this Act a marriage shall be solemnized, shall, provided such marriage has not been dissolved or declared invalid by a competent court and provided further that neither of the parties to such marriage has after such marriage and during the life of the other, already lawfully married another, be as valid and binding as it would have been if it had been solemnized in a place appointed therefor by the applicable provisions of the prior law or, as the case may be, of this Act. (4) No person shall under the provisions of this Act be capable of contracting a valid marriage through any other person acting as his representative.”.

Short title.

5. This Act shall be called the Marriage Amendment Act, 1968.