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31 U. La Verne L. Rev. 1 (2009-2010)

handle is hein.journals/jjuvl31 and id is 1 raw text is: THE RIGHT OF LEARNERS TO WEAR RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL SYMBOLS TO SCHOOL-WHEN IS JEWELRY NOT JUST JEWELRY? CAROLINE M.A. NICHOLSON* INTRODUCTION The question of whether or not learners should be permitted to wear religious or cultural symbols to school is not a new one in South Africa. For many in South Africa, the matter was finally settled by the Constitutional Court (hereinafter CC) judgment of MECfor Education: KwaZulu-Natal v Navaneethum Pillay.1 This Article will critique the judgment and argue why it should not be regarded as the final word on the matter. In Antonie v Governing Body, Settlers High School and Head Western Cape Education Department,2 matters associated with religious and other symbolic freedom of expression were placed before the South African courts.3 In the Antonie case, a school suspended a learner for contravening the school's Code when she elected to wear a Rastafarian hairstyle hidden beneath a knitted cap in school colors.4 The High Court reversed the suspension on the basis that the learner's right to freedom of expression had been infringed.5 The High Court found that * Professor of Law, Faculty of Law. University of Pretoria. South Africa. Bproc. LL.B. (Wits), LL.M., LL.D. (Unisa), Diploma in ADR (UP & AFSA), Attorney and Notary Public. 1. MEC for Edue.: KwaZulu-Natal v Pillay 2008 (2) BCLR 99 (CC) (S. Afr.) (hereinafter Pillay). 2. Antonie v Governing Body, Settlers High Sch. 2002 (4) SA 738 (Western Cape High Ct.) (S. Aft.). 3. Id. 4. Id. at 740. 5. Id. at 7431-44A.