Prisons to 'allow gay marriages' in south africa

09 July 2007- Cape Town, South Africa- Gay prisoners will not be prevented from getting married in prison, says the department of correctional services.

While there have not been gay marriages in the country's prisons yet, some gay prisoners have already expressed their wish to get married.

A weekend newspaper reported that, nationally, about 600 prisoners had requested permission to tie the knot in prison.

When contacted by the Cape Argus on Sunday, department of correctional services spokesperson, Manelisi Wolela, said the department respected the laws of the country and they would, therefore, be allowing gay marriages at prisons.

The Civil Union Act, which legalised gay marriages, was implemented in December last year.

Since then, close to 600 people have married under it.

But Wolela added that there would be a strict application process and that applications would be accepted on the individual merit of each case.

"This is to ensure that the marriage is not just a marriage of convenience that could allow them to be in one cell," he said.

He said once the department started to accept applications, it would not go against their "core mandate" to rehabilitate prisoners.

Western Cape Correctional Services spokesperson Mark Solomons could not be reached on Sunday to comment on how many gay inmates in local prisons have asked to be married.

Triangle Project spokesperson Vista Kalipa said their organisation, which supports gay rights, had not yet heard of gay prisoners wanting to be married but supported the idea.

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