THE Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission) is once again pushing for mechanisms to vet, license and regulate ALL religious organisations and leaders.
Freedom of Religion South Africa maintains the proposal by the CRL “threatens freedom of religion, including the spiritual autonomy of faith communities, and violates the Constitution“.
It was barely 30 years ago that South Africa enacted its secular Constitution guaranteeing religious freedom, following a period in which religion as construed by the NGK and Groote Kerk was synonymous with the apartheid state.
Shortly after the United States passed the First Amendment which prohibits government from establishing an official religion and from preventing the free exercise of religion, Thomas Jefferson wrote: “I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.”
Why This Matters
South Africa’s Constitution guarantees every person:
– Freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion (Section 15)
– Freedom of association (Section 18)
– Freedom of religious communities to govern themselves (Section 31)
Concerns
– Faith is a private matter, while some see it as a divine calling, not a profession — it cannot be licensed or regulated by the state. The state has no say concerning the validity of religious belief.
– The CRL has no constitutional authority to regulate doctrine, ordination, worship or religious associations
– Our Constitution does not require belief in a particular deity, nor does it specify what religion is or is not.
– State regulation is an existential threat to any meaningful right to religious freedom, including the rights of religious communities.
– Freedom of Religion is also freedom from the religious views of others. The right for example, not to be compelled to observe foreign customs, or traditions that may appear in texts interpreted by scholars from an adjacent faith community.
– The Constitutional Court has upheld religious customs and practices particularly in the Pillay decision, but lower courts including the High Court/Labour Court have shown themselves unwilling to protect the rights of minority religions and those whose secular beliefs and practices may be considered, divergent or syncretic. (see Lewis vs Media24 here)
– South Africa under the ANC has a history of banning religious leaders like the Dalai Lama. During apartheid Rabbi Andrew Unger was deported.
– It risks religious leaders becoming subject to or tools of state control, with adherents governed by the ruling party.
– It penalises interfaith worship, since those who attend such events may lose their protected status
– South Africa’s diverse religious communities already support voluntary accountability through charters, codes of conduct, fraternals, and self-governing associations.
– Parliament rejected an earlier CRL’s proposal for legislation to implement a “Peer Review Committee” system of state regulation of religion. There is no valid or legal reason to revisit this matter.