The man
Constitutional advocate. Rastafari elder. Reform leader. Three decades into a single argument — that the Constitution belongs to everyone it claims to protect.
“The Constitution is not a privilege. It is an instruction.”
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Origins
01 / 03
Long before South Africa wrote its democratic Constitution, Gareth Anver Prince was already shaped by the Rastafari movement — a tradition of contemplation, communal discipline, and quiet resistance born of the Caribbean and carried into the Cape.
He came of age in a country where his faith had no name in law, no place in public life, and no defence in the courts. The Constitution of 1996 promised that this would change. He spent the rest of his life testing whether the country meant it.
Vocation
02 / 03
Trained as a lawyer, Gareth completed his studies and applied to the Cape Law Society to be admitted as an attorney. In 1997 the Society refused, citing his open Rastafari practice. Rather than abandon either his faith or his profession, he took the matter to court.
What followed was not a single case but a body of work — a slow, patient, decades-long argument that the Constitution's promise of religious freedom must mean something for those whose religion the state had never recognised.
Method
03 / 03
Gareth's litigation has never been about exemption — it has been about equality. Each filing carries the same constitutional thread: that dignity, faith, indigenous knowledge, and personal autonomy are guaranteed to every South African, and that the law must be measured against that guarantee.
His name now sits beside some of the most consequential religious-freedom and personal-liberty rulings in the country's democratic history.
As elder
Gareth has served the Rastafari movement in South Africa not only as a litigant but as a council member — carrying the community's submissions into parliamentary process, regulatory consultations, and the cannabis reform debate.
The CouncilAs advocate
Two cases at the Constitutional Court. Multiple judgments at the High Courts and the Supreme Court of Appeal. A 2018 ruling that decriminalised private cannabis use for every adult in the country.
The journeyToday
The next chapter of Gareth's work is being argued not only in courtrooms but on the land — with indigenous farmers, traditional healers, and the communities the legal cannabis economy has so far left behind. The 2026 IKS Sandbox case before the Western Cape High Court is the next chapter.
journey-iks.jpgContinue with the timeline of the work.
The journey