From SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS, Volume 16 part 1 (2000) http://www.law.wits.ac.za/sajhr/contents201.html

The South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 prohibits corporal punishment in schools. Certain independent Christian schools, under the banner of Christian Education South Africa (CESA), have allowed corporal punishment to be administered to pupils in the belief that this form of correction is an integral part of the Christian faith. One of the rights relied upon by CESA is the right to freedom of religion in s 15 of the 1996 Constitution. This article argues that CESA's free exercise of this right is lawfully curtailed by the South African Schools Act. The justifiability of such curtailment will have to be determined by means of a balancing process. For a court to do justice to CESA's right under s 15, it will first have to determine whether CESA's stance is based on a sincerely held religious belief. Once this has been decided, the court will have to attribute the correct weight to this belief, taking into account such factors as the number of people who subscribe to the belief, and the centrality of the belief to the religion concerned. In CESA's case, the value of corporal punishment (such as it is) will have to submit to the values that the South African Schools Act aims to protect, viz children's rights to dignity, and freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The final section of the article discusses the moral and practical aspects of CESA's disobedience to the law. On the first issue, the article concludes that there is a moral injunction on CESA to obey the South African Schools Act. On the second, the article points out the various practical consequences, such as a charge of assault, that may potentially flow from disobedience to the Act.