Bonolo Selelo and Tsholofelo Kumile want to get married in Botswana. After hearing their challenge to the registration authorities, the High Court has scheduled its ruling for April 2, 2027, Botswana’s government news agency reported.
The disagreement before the judges reaches beyond whether the couple should be able to marry. State lawyer Mboki Chilisa says Parliament must settle the question. Selelo and Kumile say the existing Marriage Act already allows them to marry. If the court rejects that reading, they are asking it to find the exclusion unconstitutional.
Selelo and Kumile got engaged in March 2024. When they went to register in April 2025, staff told them no and suggested South Africa, according to the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, which backs the case. The refusal letter is dated May 8, 2025.
The Couple’s Lawyer Says Botswana’s Marriage Act Doesn’t Ban Them
Their lawyer, Wim Trengove, focused on Section 10(2), which refers to a “bride and bridegroom.” He argued that those words give an example of marriage rather than bar other couples, and that the section must be read with the Constitution. LEGABIBO, the LGBTQ+ rights organization, is the third applicant in the case.
Dingwetsi and Two Church Groups Sided With the Government
Reginald Wills represents the Dingwetsi Association, which also argues the issue belongs in Parliament. Pako Moakofhi, for the Evangelical Fellowship of Botswana, raised objections about marriage officers’ religious freedom. The Botswana House of Prayer and Transformation also joined the case, The Botswana Gazette reported.
At a July hearing Grace Silver said, “We are custodians of culture therefore it is our responsibility to speak for those who can’t make it here,” The Voice reported. Tshepo Kgositau of the Ricki Kgositau Foundation, same day: “I do not see why two consenting adults should fight to love each other.”
Botswana’s High Court struck down the country’s ban on gay sex in 2019, and the appeals court upheld that in 2021. Same-sex couples can marry in South Africa, next door.
