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Digashu And Another V Grn And Others; Seiler-Lilles And Another V Grn And Others (Sa 6/2022; Sa 7/2022) [2023] Nasc 14 (16 May 2023), Dunia P. Zongwe

SAIPAR Case Review

This controversy is about a powerful court that sided with a noble cause but that nonetheless decided the case so clumsily that it strengthened the adversaries’ otherwise weak counterarguments. In the groundbreaking Digashu case, the Supreme Court of Namibia recognized same-sex marriages contracted abroad. However, this decision relied so heavily on European and North American jurisprudence that it unintentionally fuels the impression and the accusations of those who claim that such recognition imposes Western values on the Namibian people. Moreover, in its efforts to recognize same-sex marriages, the Namibian apex court sacrificed the accuracy of its analysis by grossly distorting …