our institutions and our government accountable for upholding our laws and for protecting the rights of all in South Africa." In 2019, Cyril Ramaphosa included lesbian and gay people in his presidential inauguration speech, saying: Legality of same-sex sexual activity On 4 August 1997, in the case of S v Kampher, the Cape Provincial Division of the High Court ruled that the common-law crime of sodomy was incompatible with the constitutional rights to equality and privacy, and that it had ceased to exist as an offence when the Interim Constitution came into force on 27 April 1994. Strictly speaking, this judgment only applied to the crime of sodomy and not to the other laws criminalising sex between men, and it was also only binding precedent within the area of jurisdiction of the Cape court. On 8 May 1998, in the case of National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v Minister of Justice, the Witwatersrand Local Division of the High Court ruled that the common-law crimes of sodomy and "commission of an unnatural sexual act", as well as Section 20A of the Sexual Offences Act, were unconstitutional. The Constitutional Court confirmed this judgment on 9 October of the same year. The ruling applied retroactively to acts committed since the adoption of the Interim Constitution on 27 April 1994. Despite the decriminalisation of sex between men, the age of consent set by the Sexual Offences Act was 19 for homosexual acts but only 16 for heterosexual acts. This was rectified in 2007 by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, which codified the law on sex offences in gender and orientation neutral terms and set 16 as the uniform age of consent. In 2008, even though the new law had come into effect, the former inequality was declared to be unconstitutional in the case of Geldenhuys v National Director of Public Prosecutions, with the ruling again applying retroactively from 27 April 1994. Recognition of same-sex relationships On 1 December 2005, in the case of Minister of Home Affairs v Fourie, the Constitutional Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state to deny same-sex couples the ability to marry, and gave Parliament one year in which to rectify the situation. On 30 November 2006, the Civil Union Act came into force; despite its title it does provide for same-sex marriages. This made South Africa the fifth country in