Expelled Rastafarian pupils back in class

In just more than two years, six Rastafarian pupils have had to fight to defend their religious beliefs by refusing to cut their dreadlocks.

The pupils - five from Western Cape and one from the Free State - were dismissed from their schools before non-government organisation Equal Education intervened .

Equal Education lawyer Lisa Draga said the pupils' rights had been infringed despite being protected in law and by the constitution.

In 2011, the organisation helped Odwa Sityata, suspended from Joe Slovo Engineering High School, in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, to regain admission.

Last year it was Nkululeko Bosoga's turn to be assisted. Earlier this year, the organisation fought hard to keep Siphamandla Ngqaneka, Sibusiso Malgas and Sikhokele Diniso in school.

Last week the organisation took on Lerato Radebe's case. She is a Grade 8 pupil at Leseding Technical School, in the Free State.

But provincial education department spokesman Howard Ndaba said Radebe was a "member of the Roman Catholic Church".

"Therefore it is in dispute that her religious and cultural beliefs have been violated," he said.

Education officials enrolled her at another school in Welkom.

She will be helped to catch up on her schoolwork.

But Draga said Equal Education was not satisfied that the '"issue was shifted" to another school.

According to the Western Cape department of education, all five of the Rastafarian pupils who had been dismissed were back at school.

It said that though school governing bodies had the "legal right to determine dress codes" the department would intervene if a child's religious or cultural rights were violated.

"We then advise schools on how to proceed. In all cases, schools have taken our advice and have accepted the pupil with the hair style," the department said.