South Africa's Parliament on Tuesday approved the controversial Civil Unions Bill, which provides for same-sex marriage, the first African country to do so and one of only a few in the world.

The bill provides for opposite-sex and same-sex couples of 18 years or older to solemnize and register a voluntary union, either by marriage or civil partnership, the South African Press Association (SAPA) reported.

Same-sex couples can be married by civil marriage officers and those religious marriage officers who consider such marriages not to fall outside the tenets of their religion, the SAPA said.

Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said all forms of discrimination and prejudice, including homophobia, should be rejected.

The National Assembly, in passing the Constitution in 1996, recognized the fact that South Africa's commitment to the noble principle of equality should be the cornerstone of the new society, the SAPA said.

"In breaking with our past, therefore, we do need to fight and resist all forms of discrimination and prejudice, including homophobia," Mapisa-Nqakula said. "We should also condemn violence against same-sex couples fueled by hatred as recently observed here at home and in other countries."

Like in other African countries, homosexuality is often regarded as unacceptable and taboo in South Africa, where a number of harassment and murder cases have reportedly linked with hatred towards homosexuality.

The controversy and debate triggered by the bill had been rigorous and extensive in South Africa, with almost all opposition parties objecting the move.

Vehemently opposed to the bill was African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe who warned that voting in favor of same-sex marriage was a rejection of God's laws and those who did so would face divine wrath.

South Africa boasts for its 1996 Constitution for the advantage in safeguarding human rights, democracy and equity after its long painful history of race-based oppression and discrimination.

Although the bill has been passed, the debate was by no means over and South Africans should continue to engage each other on such matters in a constructive way to lead the country towards "the kind of society that we all fought for as embodied within our Constitution," said Mapisa-Nqakula.

"The challenge that we shall continue to face has to do with the fact that when we attained our democracy, we sought to distinguish ourselves from an unjust painful past, by declaring that never again shall it be that any South African will be discriminated against on the basis of color, creed, culture and sex," the minister said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2006)