A Rastafarian and two trainee sangomas who were fired from Pollsmoor Prison for wearing dreadlocks have won a case of unfair dismissal against their employer.

The Supreme Court of Appeals (SCA) has ruled that the Department of Correctional Services had in 2007 erred in ordering six prison warders to cut their hair and later dismissed them when they refused to do so.

Eganamang Lebatlang, Thamsanqa Ngqula, Lucky Kamlana, Cohen Jacobs and Mduduzi Kubheka were charged by the department for contravening the dress code policy that says hair may not be cut in any punk style, including a “dreadlocks” hairstyle and that it may not be longer than the collar of the shirt when folded down or cover more than half of the ear.

Lebatlang, Jacobs and Kubheka explained that they could not cut their dreadlocks because they practiced the Rastafarian religion while Ngqula said he wore his dreadlocks to obey his ancestors’ call – given through dreams – to become a sangoma in accordance with his Xhosa culture. Kamlana was also in the process of becoming a sangoma and could not cut his hair until he graduated.

The department however, according to the judgement, argued that the risk posed by dreadlocks was that they rendered Rasta officials conspicuous and susceptible to manipulation by Rastas and other inmates to smuggle dagga into correctional centres.

The five warders took the matter to the labour court, arguing that they were being discriminated against on grounds of religion, cultural beliefs and gender as female warders were allowed to have dreadlocks.

In 2010, the Labour Court ruled in their favour and ordered that they be reinstated or compensated, but the department took the matter to the SCA, which led to Thursday’s judgement.

In her ruling on Thursday, SCA judge Mandisi Maya said: “A policy is not justified if it restricts a practice of religious belief and by necessary extension, a cultural belief that does not affect an employee’s ability to perform his duties, nor jeopardise the safety of the public or other employees, nor cause undue hardship to the employer in a practical sense.”

Maya went on to say that without question a policy that effectively punished the practice of a religion and culture degraded and devalued the followers of that religion and culture in society.

“It is a palpable invasion of their dignity which says their religion or culture is not worthy of protection and the impact of the limitation is profound. That impact here was devastating because the respondents’ refusal to yield to an instruction at odds with their sincerely held beliefs cost them their employment,” she said.

Meanwhile, 18-year-old Rastafarian schoolboy Sikhokhele Diniso is fighting to be allowed back to Siphamandla High School in Khayelitsha after he was asked to cut his dreadlocks or leave school.

The HRC will this week also release its findings on a complaint brought by a Free State pupil who was expelled from school for wearing dreadlocks.

Courtesy  of http://www.thenewage.co.za