ABSTRACT
In South Africa, between 1652 and 1795, the government followed a Constantinian model in respect of the relationship between church and state. The state’s control includes advancing and supporting ‘true religion’ through the use of its coercive power. A compromise between a too strict separation between church and state and an approach of endorsing or favouring one religion over others was evident in the drafting of sections 15 and 31 of the Constitution. South Africa is rather a religion-neutral State whose constitutional provisions on the right to religious freedom sustain religion without preferring any particular faith or denomination. In the preferred cooperative model, there is interaction and cooperation between the state and religion. The Constitutional Court has interpreted the right to religious freedom to extend to the public domain, rejecting the idea that there should be no interaction between the state and religion.
