ABSTRACT
South Africa is a county with unusual levels of plurality in its laws. Not only is it a mixed jurisdiction, incorporating elements of English and Dutch law, it has also recognized customary law officially, though not in entirely clear terms. From the point of view of diversity management, the new South African Constitution insisted on equality, with less gravitas on religion and culture, as a reaction to the painful past. For South Africa, a very common trajectory is to perceive religion as an instrument of colonial containment; put simply, a ‘system for keeping people in place’. Religion, within desegregation, occupies a distinct position: beyond its contribution to end apartheid, it has also adopted the role of ‘facilitator’ in the process of national reconciliation. From its introduction, the religion education policy is struggling to train, motivate and enable teachers to moderate religious diversity programmes in their classrooms, without necessarily sharing a common understanding of diversity.
