About Us

Freedom of Religion South Africa (FOR SA) was established in 2014 as a non-profit legal advocacy organisation. Its mandate is to protect and promote the right to freedom of religion as guaranteed to all people by the South African Constitution.

FOR SA was formed in response to a defining challenge to religious freedom. Joshua Generation Church, a well-known evangelical church in the Western and Southern Cape, was targeted by an atheist couple because of its Biblical teachings on parental discipline.

The matter was taken up by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), which recommended that the church no longer teach certain Scriptures, remove them from its teaching materials, and that its pastors undergo so-called sensitisation training.

In response, Andrew Selley, founder of Joshua Generation Church, partnered with Advocate Nadene Badenhorst to establish FOR SA. The organisation was created to defend the religious freedom rights protected by the Constitution, particularly the right of individuals and communities to believe, teach, practise, and live out their religious convictions, including passing these beliefs on to their children. In the years since, the team has grown, and FOR SA now operates independently of its founding members and the church they came from.

Since its founding, FOR SA has been actively involved in a wide range of matters affecting religious freedom. It has made representations before Government, Parliament, Chapter 9 institutions and the courts, often acting on behalf of organisations and individuals representing between 6 and 18,5 million people.

Beyond legal advocacy, FOR SA engages the media and the broader public to explain its positions and to equip citizens to participate meaningfully in democratic processes. At its core, FOR SA is driven by the conviction that freedom of religion is essential to the health and well-being of any society that calls itself a democracy.