Cape Town has always been a wow spot to say your vows for foreign couples - but no longer, annoyed marriage officers say.
|||Cape Town - Cape Town has always been a wow spot to say your vows for foreign couples - but no longer, annoyed marriage officers say.
Marriage officers and wedding co-ordinators say that the government has introduced new rules that wrap a would-be wedding in red tape, and many foreigners are not prepared to tie the knot here anymore.
A group met in Rondebosch yesterday to discuss the implications of the regulations on the multimillion-rand local wedding industry.
It was estimated that foreign couples choosing South Africa as their wedding destination brought in at least R560 million to the economy every year.
The new regulations, which had come into effect within the last year, meant foreign couples had to apply for their unabridged marriage certificate and then collect it three months to a year after the wedding.
If a foreigner wished to marry a South African, they would have to be interviewed by an immigration official at Home Affairs. In Cape Town the only option for the interview was the Barrack Street offices.
A notice outside the Cape Town Home Affairs offices read: “Only the applicants or their family members are allowed to collect their BMD (birth, marriage, death) certificates. No agent may apply on behalf of or collect on behalf of an applicant.”
Marriage officers had previously been allowed to apply for and collect these documents for the couple.
Walter Schwär, a marriage officer, said South Africa had been a “paradise” for foreign couples, but the new regulations made it too complicated and unpleasant.
Aleit Swanepoel, the founder and chief executive of wedding co-ordinating company The Aleit Group, said the new regulations had already cost him a number of foreign clients.
He said 70 percent of his clients had previously been foreign and this had been reduced to 50 percent.
“Sadly, it is my belief that the economy as a whole will be influenced extremely negatively, should the SA government not jump in.”
The Aleit Group co-ordinated about 20 international weddings a year, he said.
Swanepoel said the average wedding his company co-ordinated cost about R500 000, but with the addition of car hire, flights, food, fuel, accommodation and honeymoon expenses, weddings contributed far more to the economy.
“All the above contributes to the sum of the total income towards the South African economy… these couples and their guests in South Africa… come back… they tell their friends, they tell their colleagues,” he said.
“Should the new legislation be informed, job losses will occur, the hospitality industry will suffer.”
Marriage officer Gordon Oliver said he understood that Home Affairs needed to tighten security measures, but felt they had gone overboard. “The word that’s going around is, ‘Don’t get married in South Africa, it’s too complicated’. We’re hoping Home Affairs will agree to meet with us to hear our concerns.”
Wedding co-ordinator Christiane Verweyen said foreign couples wanted to get married in South Africa because of “the beauty of the country” and because the paperwork had previously been “quite easy”.
The Department of Home Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.
Cape Times