New Scorecards Reveal Government Commitment To (or disregards for) Religious Freedom

In anticipation of the upcoming general elections, FOR SA has prepared two religious freedom scorecards. The scorecards track how Parliament and government departments have upheld – or undermined – religious freedom.

Anyone who values being able to live out their faith freely and without fear will be very interested in what the scorecards have to say. The scorecards provide valuable information and insights that voters – especially those concerned about religious freedom or parents’ right to pass on their beliefs and values to their children – may want to consider.

Parliament Voting Scorecard

The past five years saw various bills (draft laws) that threaten religious freedom being considered by Parliament. The Parliament Voting Scorecard shows how political parties who hold seats in Parliament voted on these bills.

FOR SA is politically neutral and we do not support or favour any political party. Instead, we are willing and grateful to work with any party or MP who values religious freedom as we do.

Thanks to our active engagement with Parliament, some of these bills were passed with significant amendments. This means that in certain instances many or most of our religious freedom concerns were successfully addressed.

Take, for example, the Spy Bill. The original version of the bill was not only a threat to religious freedom but also to human rights and constitutional democracy in general. It would have opened the door to the state regulation of religion and subjected religious leaders and institutions to mandatory security vetting investigations performed by government intelligence agencies (i.e. spies).

FOR SA collaborated with DearSouthAfrica to provide the South African public with a quick and easy way to understand what the Spy Bill is about, and then, to comment whether they support it (or not). The comments delivered by the public, together with the formal submissions made by stakeholders such as FOR SA , had a tremendous impact.

The final bill passed by Parliament was a remarkable improvement. All significant religious freedom concerns were addressed. It is a true success story!

Unfortunately, there are some horror stories as well. The most recent and pertinent being the Hate Speech Bill which has since become law as the Hate Speech Act.

The Hate Speech Act is a draconian law that criminalises not only real hate speech but goes much further than the Constitution allows. It is a real threat to freedom of expression in general, including religious expression. This means people could end up going to jail for up to five years saying something that is, rightfully, constitutionally protected speech.

In contrast to the Spy Bill, valuable public input (including a great many calling for the inclusion of robust or improved definitions and effective exemption clauses for sincere religious expression) was dismissed or ignored.

All in all, this makes the Hate Speech Act open to a constitutional challenge. Its coming into law was indeed a dark day for democracy and for faith and freedom.

Government Department Scorecard

In addition to the Parliament Voting Scorecard, we also compiled a Government Department Scorecard. This scorecard looks at various instruments (policies, bills, regulations, guidelines, protocols, toolkits, etc) produced by government departments over the past five years.

Wherever we identified a freedom of religion concern, we endeavoured to engage the government amicably yet earnestly and with constructive proposals. The scorecard summarises our concerns, how departments responded, and whether public engagement was meaningful.

Again, some departments went the extra mile to engage the public and gave serious consideration to the inputs that were made. Sadly, others were found lacking.

For example, the Department of Home Affairs should be given credit for the extensive public engagement process it held for the marriage law reform process – starting at the Green Paper on Marriage and culminating in the draft Marriage Bill. The final policy positions and proposals of its White Paper on Marriage accommodate all members of South Africa’s diverse society.

In contrast, an area of great and growing concern is parental rights. Particularly, parents’ right to raise their own children according to their own religious beliefs and moral values without interference from the State or anyone else.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has produced a plethora of instruments that individually and collectively undermine parental rights and religious freedom (whether intentionally or not). This means diversity based on religion, opinion and belief is not reasonably accommodated and that religious learners, parents and school staff might well find themselves at the receiving end of ostensibly State-sanctioned unfair discrimination. This is constitutionally indefensible.

Parents may want to familiarise themselves with the content of the ECE Toolkit, which introduced transgender ideology in the classroom for children nine years and younger. FOR SA has teamed up with DearSouthAfrica to provide parents with an opportunity to “Have Your Say” on the Toolkit. We did this because, unfortunately, parents were not meaningfully consulted in any way in the development and implementation of the Toolkit (it has been rolled out in at least five provinces). Lack of meaningful public participation has been an issue with more than one instrument produced by the DBE.

The state of the nation’s religious freedom

Both the Parliament Voting Scorecard and the Government Department Scorecard provide important insights into the protection of religious freedom by the State. While freedom of religion is being protected in some areas, it is being carelessly undermined (even errored) in others.

Freedom of religion is a cornerstone value and right of all healthy democratic societies. If we care about our constitutional democracy and human rights order, we must guard and uphold religious freedom – including freedom of religious expression and parental rights.

FOR SA hopes that the incoming Government and Parliament will take seriously and perform diligently their duty to uphold the Constitution and the Bill of Rights – including the right to freedom of religion, belief and opinion of individuals, institutions, and communities.

Whoever is voted into power on 29 May 2024, will have a profound impact – for better or worse – on our nation, our daily lives, and our ability to live out our faith freely and without fear or hindrance.

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