Court case puts religion in schools under scrutiny

15 May 2017 - 20:26 By Katharine Child
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If one majority religion is practised in school assemblies‚ then any pupil who asks to miss the assembly is forced to say they are different.

This was the issue posed on Monday by high court judges hearing a case on religion in schools.

Advocate Johan du Toit SC was pressed on this in the Johannesburg High Court as he defended six Afrikaans schools’ right to promote a Christian ethos‚ including Bible readings at assembly.

In 2014‚ Stellenbosch resident Hans Pietersen SC applied to have these six schools interdicted from being Christian state-funded schools with Christian prayers‚ songs and logos.

He argued that the single religious nature was unconstitutional and discriminatory to learners who were not Christian‚ breaching minority learners' rights of diversity and equality. The case is being heard in the Johannesburg high court this week.

The schools named in the court case are Laerskool Randhart‚ Laerskool Baanbreker‚ Laerskool Garsfontein‚ Hoerskool Linden - all in Gauteng - and two Oudtshoorn schools‚ Hoerskool Oudtshoorn and Langenhoven Gimnasium. But lawyers defending the schools have asked that the judgment pertain to every school in the country.

The Federation of Governing Bodies of SA schools (Fedsas) is representing the schools.

Their advocate Du Toit was on Monday pressed by all three judges to explain how a single religion did not automatically discriminate against and exclude other learners and thus undermine their constitutional right to equality.

Judge Lamont said in court: "The whole point to open up and rejoice in diversity is not to perpetuate ring-fenced groups."

He suggesting allowing a single school "to adopt a particular religion as its own" did not encourage diversity at school.

Judges questioned how some suburbs which contained these schools came to be white and Afrikaans only. Du Toit conceded white only suburbs were a result of South Africa's history. But he argued it was not the school governing body's fault if they had to make rules that reflected a school's singular religious interests.

The schools allow learners of other religions or secular learners to miss Christian assembly.

Judge Collin Lamont pointed out: "By creating a system at school and requiring them [pupils] to opt out [ of assembly]‚ you require that person to say I am different. How is that not violation of other issues [rights] in the constitution?'

Later Judge Willem Van de Linde pointed out being different could make a child "feel like an outcast".

Paul Colditz‚ the CEO of Fedsas‚ said: "Each system is exclusionary. If you make a school become secular‚ it is discriminatory against learners who want a Christian or Muslim school. If you have Muslim or Christian school‚ it is discriminatory against those who want a secular school."

The cases continues.

TMG Digital/The Times

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