The first civil union, in George

On Friday 1 December 2006, the day after the Civil Union Act came into force, Vernon Gibbs and Tony Halls were married by a Home Affairs officer, Petro Kruger, in George in the Western Cape. They were the first same-sex couple to marry legally in South Africa, the first African country to allow it. Tony took the surname Halls-Gibbs and Vernon Gibbs-Halls. Friends, reporters and curious onlookers watched. They married on World Aids Day and dedicated the marriage to people living with HIV and to gay people who had faced discrimination.