In this Act, unless the context otherwise indicates—

"court"

means a High Court of South Africa, or a family court established under any law, and for purposes of section 8, a Divorce Court established in terms of section 10 of the Administration Amendment Act, 1929 (Act No. 9 of 1929);

"customary law"

means the customs and usages traditionally observed among the indigenous African peoples of South Africa and which form part of the culture of those peoples;

"customary marriage"

means a marriage concluded in accordance with customary law;

"lobolo"

means the property in cash or in kind, whether known as lobolo, bogadi, bohali, xurna, lumalo, thaka, ikhazi, magadi, emabheka or by any other name, which a prospective husband or the head of his family undertakes to give to the head of the prospective wife’s family in consideration of a customary marriage;

"Minister"

means the Minister of Home Affairs;

"prescribed"

means prescribed by regulation made under section 11;

"registering officer"

means any person appointed as registering officer for purposes of this Act by the Minister or an officer acting under the Minister’s written authorization;

"this Act"

includes the regulations; and

"traditional leader"

means any person who, in terms of customary law of the traditional community concerned, holds a traditional leadership position and is recognised in terms of the applicable legislation providing for such recognition.

[Definition substituted by section 1 of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Amendment Act (Act No. 1 of 2021), GG44646, Notice No. 319, dated 1 June 2021]