Source: National pledge ruling deferred | The Herald April 30, 2016
Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
Government policy requiring all schoolchildren to recite the national pledge will now be implemented unhindered when schools open next week after Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku dismissed the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights’ urgent interdict. Chief Justice Chidyausiku, in his chambers, on Thursday threw out the urgent application but directed the registrar of the Constitutional Court to set down the main challenge at an earliest convenient date.
This means the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education will continue with its plan requiring pupils to recite the pledge pending determination of the main contest instituted by a Harare man who is objecting to having his children compelled to recite the pledge for religious reasons.
After the chamber hearing, the lawyers agreed before the registrar that if the parties file all the relevant papers for the main challenge by June 3, the full bench of the Constitutional Court will sit to hear the matter on June 29.
They agreed on the timelines to file the papers with the Government expected to file its notice of opposition by May 4 this year. ZLHR will file heads of argument on behalf of the Harare man by May 20 while Government should file its heads by June 3 ahead of the hearing on June 29.
Mr David Hofisi of the ZLHR, on behalf of a Harare man (name withheld for professional reasons), is contesting the constitutionality of the requirement. The national pledge, according to the father of three school-going children who is behind the challenge, is unconstitutional and against his religious beliefs.
He does not want his children to recite the pledge.
The man, who is a member of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe (AFM), argued that the national pledge is a prayer which exalts various secular phenomena including the national flag, mothers and fathers who lost their lives in the liberation struggle.
This, he said, is not his understanding of prayer shared by his faith, which reserved worship to God alone. He contends that the national pledge is offensive to his religious convictions and thus befouls various sections of the supreme law of the country.
Mr Hofisi argued that the man was entitled to an urgent hearing of the matter because he will suffer irreparable harm if his children are compelled to recite a pledge which is contrary to their views, opinions and beliefs.
The man’s children are attending Mashambanhaka Secondary School in Murehwa and Chizungu Primary School in Epworth and headmasters for the two schools were listed respondents together with Education Minister Lazarus Dokora and the Attorney-General of Zimbabwe Advocate Prince Machaya.
In the main constitutional challenge filed on behalf of the same man on April 15 this year, the man who filed the application on behalf of his three children and also in his own capacity, argued that the pledge was in fact a prayer which was not in sync with his Christian beliefs and values.
He argued that his right to equality before the law and non-discrimination will be violated by the imposition of the national pledge as a requirement for all children in schools. The man argued that the Constitution recognises the existence all religious beliefs and values and that the new requirement in schools was an endorsement of monotheistic religious beliefs which accommodate secular salutations.
He argued that the national pledge was neither a provision of that Constitution nor an Act of Parliament hence it cannot limit any of the rights and freedoms in the Declaration of Rights.
The man also contends that the compulsory imposition of the national pledge as a requirement in schools was in violation of the right to dignity as protected under Section 51 of the Constitution.
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