Answer grounded in published legislation
Your question
Me and my girlfriend is together for 12 years. IF we break up, who keeps the dogs?
The supplied sources do not determine who owns or keeps the dogs after a breakup. The Dog Tax Ordinance only provides for transferring a dog licence and metal badge, and distinguishes between keeping a dog and temporarily keeping it; it does not state that the licence holder owns the dog or decide custody after separation. 1
The marriage and joint-ownership provisions supplied do not establish rights for an unmarried couple, and the sources contain no rule about jointly owned dogs or relationship duration. Therefore, who keeps the dogs cannot be determined from these sources. 2 3 5 6
Verified sources
Where this answer comes from
Municipal Dog Tax Ordinance 13 of 1967
(a) any person commencing to keep a dog in respect of which the tax has been paid by some other person, shall during the currency of the licence and metal badge concerned and on payment of a fee of twenty cents, be entitled to have such licence and metal badge transferred to him by endorsement made on such licence by the council which issued such licence; and (b) a person ceasing to keep a dog in respect of which the tax has been paid, shall be entitled on payment of a fee of twenty cents to have the licence and metal badge in respect of such dog transferred by endorsement by the council which issued such licence to any other dog kept by such person and in respect of which it is shown to the...
Deeds Registries Act 14 of 2015
12. Registration of immovable property in name of married persons
Dissolution of Marriages Act 10 of 2024
as may be prescribed in the rules of court, jointly institute divorce proceedings on the ground of the irretrievable breakdown of the marriage.
Municipal Dog Tax Ordinance 13 of 1967
[subsection (2) amended by Ord. 41 of 1967 and Ord. 8 of 1978]
Industrial Property Act 1 of 2012
of a design, the joint applicants have, in the absence of an agreement to the contrary, equal undivided shares in the application, and none of them may without the consent of the other joint applicant or applicants deal in any way with the application, but if any proceedings are required to save the application from becoming abandoned, any applicant may institute such proceedings on behalf of himself or herself and any other joint applicant. (2) If any dispute arises between joint applicants as to their respective rights in and to an application for a design or as to the manner in which the application is to be proceeded with or the manner in which they may deal with the application or explo...
Deeds Registries Act 47 of 1937
(1A) If immovable p roperty or a lease under an law or a bond is registered in the deeds registry in the name of both spouses who were married in community of property or whose marriage was governed by the Recognition of Certain Marriages Act, 1991, but who have been divorced, and such property, lease, or bond accrues to both the former spouses in undivided shares in terms of the division of the joint estate, the registrar may on written application by any of the spouses, accompanied by such documents as the registrar deems necessary, endorse on the title deeds of such property, or on the lease or bond or, if such deed, lease, or bond cannot be produced by such spouse due to the other spouse...