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Daniel Nemukuyu Harare Bureau
SCHOOLS must allow children to wear long hair because any order to the contrary is a breach of their “freedom of conscience”, the Constitutional Court has ruled.
The ruling came after four schoolgirls were excluded from Batanai Secondary School in Mashava in September last year.

Melody Svondo, Vimbainashe Matarirano and twins Yolanda and Yonlanda Manyere, refused to trim their hair citing religious beliefs.

But the country’s top court yesterday held that a decision to expel the quartet was unconstitutional.

Three of the girls were in Form 1 while one was in Form 2 when they were expelled.

They were re-admitted to the school a month later pending determination of their court challenge of the school rules.

They are all members of the End Time Message Ministry, which does not allow females to shave or trim their hair. The church’s doctrine is premised on 1 Corinthians 11 verse 6 of the Bible, which makes shaving or trimming of hair unacceptable for women or girls.

The girls’ parents engaged Harare lawyer, Joshua Shekede, who contested the expulsion, arguing it infringed on the girls’ freedom of conscience. The parents also argued that the decision was discriminatory.

Lawyers representing the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education conceded that the decision was discriminatory and unconstitutional, prompting the court to grant the order sought.

The order says in part: “It is declared that the headmaster’s decision in expelling the children from school on the basis that they refused to shave or trim their hair is an infringement of their right to freedom of conscience as enshrined in Section 60(1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Number 20, 2013.

“The children of the applicants should not be refused admission to Batanai Secondary School on the basis of the length of their hair . . . ”

In the application, the parents argued that when their children enrolled at the school, there were no such rules and they were imposed at a later stage to the disadvantage of their children.

Trouble started in May 2013 when the school authorities demanded that all children must shave or trim their hair. End Time Message pastors wrote to the school authorities explaining the girls’ situation, but the school authorities were adamant to the extent of expelling the children.

The parents said their children were subjected to untold suffering when they were called names and insulted in front of other pupils.
The parents insisted that their children were neat and tidy at school as they could manage their long hair.