South Africa's top court allows men to assume wives' surname

South Africa's highest court has ruled that men may assume their wives’ surnames in a verdict hailed as placing men and women in an equal legal footing in marriage.

The Constitutional Court declared as unconstitutional a section of the Births and Deaths Registration Act that required men to first apply to the authorities for any change of name, whereas women enjoyed automatic rights to change their surnames after marriage, divorce or widowhood.

In its verdict on Thursday, the court found that this amounted to unfair gender discrimination because it failed to provide men with the same automatic rights, pubic broadcaster SABC reports.

"The court found that the inability of men to assume their wives surnames constitutes differentiation,” the court said in a post on social media.

Refused permission

The case was brought before the court by two couples - Jana Jordaan and Henry Van Der Merwe, and Jess Donnelly-Bornman and Andreas Nicolas Bornman.