Harmful traditional practices, (male circumcision - Electronic Thesis ...

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vulnerable or disadvantaged cultural, religious and linguistic communities that do not
have the resources for such initiatives.” 182
From the above submission it can be argued that vulnerable groups require
special protection in the light of our recent apartheid history. It is for this reason
that the court in the case of Prince v President of the Law Society of the Cape of
Good Hope & others, 2002 (2) SA 794 (CC), emphasized the importance of
contextualizing the balancing exercise required by the limitations clause in the
Constitution. 183
In the Prince case, the constitutionality of section 4(4) of the Drugs and Drug
Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 came into question. This case arose out of the
failure of the Cape Law Society to register a candidate attorney, Prince, a
Rastafarian who asserted his right to smoke dagga in breach of the relevant drug
laws. According to Prince, the smoking of dagga was a central tenet of his
religion and culture as a Rastafarian.
In this case, although it was found that the right to religion of Prince had been
infringed, it was held that such an infringement was justifiable on the basis that
no meaningful exemption could be carved out for ritual dagga use. The majority
in this case relied heavily on the state’s evidence that even limited dagga
smoking could lead to broader drug use in the country and greater narcotics
trafficking in the country. 184 Unlike the majority decision, the dissenting
judgments of Sachs J and Ncgobo J are extremely useful in that the court went
182 Henrard K, “The Accommodation of Religious Diversity in South Africa against the background
of the centrality of the Equality Principle in the New Constitutional Dispensation”, in Journal of
African Law, Vol 45, No.1, 2001 at p 68.
183 Para 151.
184 Woolman S, Roux T, Klaaren J, Stein A, Chaskalson M and Bishop M, “Constitutional Law of
South Africa,” 2 nd edition, Juta and Co. Ltd., 2005 at p 36.