A colleague filling out an IRP2 form this week was confused by a question about her marital status: are you a married person, a married woman or an unmarried person, the form wanted to know.
For a moment it looked as if the South African Revenue Service (SARS) was preparing for a new round of gender discrimination. But no. A call to the SARS established the fact that the IRP2 form (PAYE: Personal Particulars of Employee) is no longer in use because the information it contains is not relevant any more: all taxpayers are just that, taxpayers, and it is of no interest to the taxman whether you are married, never married, soon-to-be-married, once-but-no-longer married, or for that matter female or male.
IRP2 forms are apparently still circulating, though, in some places of employment, where employers seem to find them useful for purposes of employee records.
So if you find yourself filling in one of these old forms, ask your employer why. The SARS, in any case, is not really interested in your marital status.