A grade 10 pupil from a school in Cape Town has missed almost two weeks of school because he has refused to cut his dreadlocks.
|||Cape Town - A grade 10 pupil from Siphamandla Secondary in Khayelitsha has missed almost two weeks of school because he has refused to cut his dreadlocks.
Sikhokhele Diniso, 18, said he was told not to come back to school unless his dreadlocks were cut.
But the school says Diniso is not suspended - and has merely been asked “to comb his hair in order to look more presentable”.
Diniso said he couldn’t cut his hair because he followed the Rastafarian faith and Rastas believed that cutting their hair would weaken them.
“I was last at school on March 13. The principal has told me about my hair before, and when I told him why I couldn’t cut my hair he said that religion and culture was not allowed in school.
“My parents went to the school to speak to him once and they were not available to go and speak to him again because of work.”
Diniso said he had met the advocacy NGO Equal Education, which had been in touch with the school.
Equal Education media officer Kate Wilkinson said that cultural and religious diversity should not be undermined by schools.
“A school uniform policy or dress code should take into account religious and cultural diversity within the community.
“Measures should be included to accommodate pupils whose religious beliefs are compromised by a uniform requirement.”
Wilkinson said the principal’s actions had violated Diniso’s constitutional rights to dignity, freedom of religion and basic education.
They had asked the Western Cape Education Department to send a circular to schools giving clear guidelines on the legal position of schools’ codes of conduct and pupils’ religious and cultural beliefs and practices.
The department’s Millicent Merton said she had spoken to the principal, who said Diniso had not been suspended.
“The principal requested the learner to come to school with his parents and to comb his hair in order to look more presentable.”
Merton said had Diniso been suspended there would have been a more “formal process”.
yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za
Cape Argus