Source: www.deccanherald.com
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA, September 5, 2010: A long-standing dispute between a neighbors over the alleged use of a Hindu’s home as a temple is to go to court where lawyers will test the Constitutional prescriptions on religious freedom in South Africa.
Aneesa Carrim of the residential suburb of Claudius, some 15 km from the city center of Pretoria, asked the Tshwane municipality, which controls the area, to investigate her claims that her neighbor Subramaniakurukkal Jegatheeswaran had converted his garage and front garden into a temple. Carrim claimed that religious functions for up to 250 people were hosted on the premises and a fire was kept continuously burning in the garage or on the lawn.
Jegatheeswaran’s attorney, Kineil Muthray, said the home was not a temple, but that his client was “just a Hindu whom people go to for spiritual guidance”. “The municipality has charged (my client) for contravening the bylaws by running (his home) as a temple site. We are going to challenge it on the basis that they are going to stop him from practising his religion,” Muthray said.