10
Judgment No. CCZ 1/18
Constitutional Application Nos. CCZ 39/14 and CCZ 40/14
there. The occupants of the office of headmaster and deputy headmaster being Anglicans is an
integral aspect of the administration of the schools guaranteeing the propagation and promotion of
Anglicanism. The reason is that the religious or doctrinal aspects of the schools lie at their very
hearts and colour all their activities and programmes. The role of the headmaster and deputy
headmaster in this respect is fundamental to the whole effort of the schools as much in their
spiritual nature as in the academic. (See Ontario Human Rights Commission v Etobicoke (Borough
of) [1982] 1 SCR 202 at 208.)
The measures taken attest to the exercise by the religious organisation of the right to
determine the policy and rules governing the administration of the affairs of the schools it would
have established for the purposes of promoting its own religion. The enjoyment of the right by the
religious community concerned is consistent with the foundational principle of the Constitution
that Zimbabwe is a secular State.
Whilst the decision to appoint a person as a headmaster or deputy headmaster of a school
is a secular decision, the qualifications for appointment to a religious school may properly include
a requirement that the person be an adherent of the religion for which the community that
established the institution stands. The management of religious schools established under the
authority of s 60(4) of the Constitution cannot be governed wholly by secular laws, as the purpose
of their establishment is invariably the provision of secular education as well as religious
instruction. The rule was enacted by an ecclesiastical body for the management of internal affairs
in matters of religion at its schools. Religious organisations are obviously formed to uphold and
enforce the fundamental principles and doctrines of the religion chosen by their members.