The apartheid-era legislation was ruled unconstitutional for discriminating on the basis of gender, South African newspaper The Citizen reports.

The legal challenge was brought by two husbands, one of whom wanted to adopt his wife’s surname and another who wanted to adopt both of their surnames as a double-barrelled name.

In Thursday’s ruling, Ms Justice Leona Theron said the ban was “largely a colonial import rooted in patriarchal norms where women were seen as legally inferior to their husbands and expected to assume their identity”.

“It unfairly discriminates on the grounds of gender by failing to offer a woman the right to have her spouse assume her surname,” she said.

The South African parliament has been given 24 months to bring the legislation in line with its ruling.

The government, which did not contest the case, has been ordered to pay both couples’ legal costs.