Same-sex marriage becomes legal

The Constitutional Court had given Parliament a year to fix the marriage law. On 14 November 2006 the National Assembly passed the Civil Union Act by 229 votes to 41, and it came into force on 30 November. South Africa became the fifth country in the world, and the first in Africa, where two people of the same sex could marry. The first couple married the next day, at a Home Affairs office in George.