What is the process to arrange an appointment with Home Affairs to set up a premarital interview?

The long answer

Thank you for your email asking about the process to arrange an appointment with Home Affairs to set up a premarital interview.

Home Affairs has said that in its war against long queues, it has introduced a new online Branch Appointment Booking System (BABS) which they say is quick and easy. To book an appointment, you visit www.dha.gov.za and click on BABS.

If BABS is not available for premarital wedding interviews or does not come through for some reason, you would need to go to your local Home Affairs office to register your intention to marry and apply for a Department of Home Affairs Marriage Certificate at least three months before your wedding date.

These are the Home Affairs requirements for you as a South African to get married:
 If you have been married previously, you must show proof of divorce or death
of previous partner
 You are not a minor (under age of 18)
 You are not suffering from severe mental illness which prevents you from
understanding what marriage is.

The following documents must be submitted together with the Home Affairs marriage forms (which you can ask for from the Home Affairs offices):

 Identification documents, such as a South African ID card
 Both passports, if one partner is not South African
 A completed BI-31 form, which declares that you are legally allowed to marry
 Official divorce decree, stamped by the court, if one partner has previously
been married
 Death certificate, if one partner has been widowed

You should know that the pre-marriage interview could take weeks to set up with Home Affairs, but perhaps now that it is under new leadership (Minister Schreiber), it
may not take as long. The interview is to make sure that both parties are entering the marriage of their own free will. As you know, if you don’t attend an interview, the marriage certificate will not be registered and the marriage will be declared null and void. Home Affairs may interview you and your partner separately to make sure that it is a genuine marriage. 
Once they are satisfied, they will give you a letter which you must give the marriage officer on the day you get married. This letter gives the marriage officer permission to sign off the official wedding papers and log the necessary documents with Home Affairs to register the marriage. Which means that you can get an official abridged marriage certificate from Home Affairs after your marriage ceremony.

Wishing you the best,
Athalie