Marriage officers sit on records for years
More than 40 married people have discovered in the last three months that home affairs records still list them as single after the death of their spouses.
Home affairs minister Lucia Iipumbu says the cases prompted home affairs to urge married couples to verify their marriage records after concluding the ceremony.
“Maybe in the past four or five months, we had more than 30 to 40 cases of people who come here when their partner passed away, and then they come here, and then they find their records not updated.
They would find themselves being single on the system,” Iipumbu told The Namibian yesterday.
She says the problem often arises when marriage officers do not submit marriage registers to home affairs after conducting marriages.
Iipumbu says marriages conducted at courts are generally updated on the system, while records from marriages conducted by marriage officers at churches or other places may take longer to reach the ministry.
“Sometimes they [marriage officers] only deliver the records to home affairs after three years or so.
And sometimes, something happens in between, the records are not updated,” she says.
She says people often discover the problem only after a spouse dies and the surviving partner approaches home affairs for documents, adding that this can delay the issuing of a death certificate or other documents because officials may have to trace the marriage officer who conducted the marriage.
Iipumbu says the verification call applies to all married couples and is meant to help people identify problems with their records before they need official documents.
The ministry made a similar call last year, urging married couples to visit their nearest home affairs office to confirm that their marriage records had been submitted and registered by their marriage officers.
Iipumbu says last year’s call did not attract many couples who came forward to check their records.
INHERITANCE TROUBLES
Data from the 2023 Population and Housing Census by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) shows that 5.5% of Namibians were married traditionally, while 4.1% were in consensual unions.
The census also indicates that Namibians marry at an average age of 30.5 years.
Financial planner at Momentum Metropolitan Betty Ndjiva says marriage records are important when dealing with inheritance and the estate of a deceased spouse.
She says a church ceremony could create difficulties for a surviving spouse if the marriage does not appear on the home affairs register.
“How will you prove that you have been married? You can’t prove it because it’s not registered at home affairs because it’s all about bringing a marriage certificate because marriage is in the system,” she says.
Ndjiva says this could make the inheritance process difficult when a surviving spouse cannot confirm the marriage through official records.
The Namibia Marriage Council founder and executive director Paulus Hawanga says the council has dealt with cases in which couples believed they were legally married, only to discover that their marriages had not been entered into the official register.
“Sometimes, some churches, when a new pastor takes over, may throw away the marriage papers without realising that those papers were never submitted to the home affairs office,” Hawanga says.
Hawanga says inheritance disputes can become more complicated when families follow customary practices without considering the couple’s legal marriage arrangements.
He says relatives sometimes decide who should receive a house, vehicle or other property without considering the rights of the surviving spouse and children.
“This situation is just for lack of training and lack of awareness. People are not aware of what is supposed to happen when a spouse dies,” he says.
Hawanga says couples should understand the type of marriage they are entering into and what it means for their property and families before getting married.
He says marriage officers must ensure that documents signed during weddings reach home affairs so that marriages are entered into the official register.
Hawanga also wants greater recognition and clarity around civil, religious and customary marriages to reduce family disputes.
“The absence of this is causing unnecessary dispute in the family,” he says.
