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Religion and Politics
by Damon Leff
In August South African Pagans were reminded that sometimes, evil does resurrect. The National Party [1] (formerly the New National Party - which merged with the ANC in April 2005, formerly the National Party which enforced apartheid on South Africans - both Black and White) was registered with South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission [2] on 28 August as a political party. |
Under the direction of its most outspoken leader, Juan Duval Uys, [3] the National Party (NP) will campaign for the reinstatement of the death penalty (outlawed in South Africa in 1995), public executions, and the suppression or religious minorities regarded as offensive to Christian and Muslim supporters of the NP. Uys publicly declared his intention to change the constitution to enable the NP to implement its barbaric and prejudicial policies.
On its website Uys reaffirmed his vision for the NP with regard to education and religion. On a page entitled 'Religious Instruction In Schools' Uys stated:
quote: Satanism Not Recognised - The National Party respects the practice of all religions in our country, but will not tolerate satanism. The NP will outlaw all practices directly linked to satanism. [4]
I contacted Uys on 18 August on behalf of the South African Pagan Rights Alliance (SAPRA) to find out what religious minorities he classified as 'satanic' and intended to suppress. Most Christians in South Africa tend to identify all occult / esoteric belief systems and spiritualities as 'satanic'. Uys replied to my query by saying, "We will not allow witches to operate in South Africa under NP Government. We and our supporters can not associate ourselves with anything that are (sic) linked to Satanism." [5]
I responded by expressing my dismay that the NP intended to repeat pre-1994 Nationalist Christian propaganda and discrimination against Witches and Witchcraft in South Africa. I informed Uys that in South Africa, self-defined Witches represented a small but visible religious minority. Pagan Witches have government appointed religious marriage officers and officially recognised religious groups and faith-based organisations. I explained that our own faith-based organisation (SAPRA) was formed in 2004 in order to protect the constitutional right to religious freedom and belief of self-defined Pagans (including Witches) and to defend and protect Witchcraft as a bone-fide religion.
I affirmed that SAPRA regarded his statement to "not allow witches to operate in South Africa under NP Government" as intent to suppress and discriminate against Witchcraft and Witches in South Africa and that the Alliance would therefore not support the Nationalist Party in any form and would, at every available opportunity, denounce the religious prejudiced policies of the National Party.
Uys responded to my second letter by saying, "We don't have a problem with your view on our policy, but we will NEVER (sic) regard Satanism or witches as a form of religion. Our major support comes from Christians and Muslims etc, we will never link this party to Satanism or witchcraft. We will make this very clear during elections 2009." [6]
SAPRA initiated a letter writing campaign encouraging Pagans and self-defined Witches to object to the NP's discriminatory policy on religion. [7] The NP eventually disabled it's contact form [8] but it could not ignore the number of objections lodged by individual Pagans. On behalf of both SAPRA the South African Pagan Council (SAPC), SAPRA submitted a formal objection to the NP against its policy on religion and religious instruction in schools [9].
I also submitted an objection on behalf of both SAPRA and the SAPC to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) against the registration of the National Party as a political party on the grounds that the NP's policies on religion and religious education propagate the contravention of the constitutional right to freedom of belief and religion to recognized religious minorities and intend to prevent membership of the NP on the grounds of religious affiliation by excluding identified religious minorities as undesirable. [10]
On 28 August the IEC's Chief Electoral Officer ruled that the National Party's submitted constitution did not contravene section 16 of the Electoral Commission Act - the NP's submitted constitution does not discriminate on the basis of religion or belief.
Clearly, while the NP's submitted constitution may not have contained any discriminatory content, the party's policies on religion as advertised on its website indicated that until the end of August 2008, the NP had every intention of discriminating against South Africans on the basis of religion and that the party had already publicly identified the religious minorities the NP intended to suppress.
But it appears, perhaps precipitated by Pagan protests, that since the beginning of September the NP's policy on religion, now under the direction of the NP's new Spokesperson for Religion and Cultural affairs and National Director of the NP's Legal Services, J.M.T. Labuschagne, [11] has undergone a radical shift from the far right conservative bigotry of Uys. On 1 September the NP removed the statement regarding Satanism from their web-page on religion and education and Labuschagne published a new page entitled 'National Party South Africa (NP) On Paganism'.
In it Labuschagne stated, "We have noted with great concern that there is a misunderstanding amongst the Pagan community regarding the NP's statement on Satanism. We would like to state it unequivocally that the National Party does not hold any ill feeling against the pagan community. On the contrary, the National Party would endeavour upon election to protect the rights of the Pagan community. We understand the response from the Pagan community regarding our policy towards Satanism. It is well known that paganism has wrongly, and to the great detriment of the Pagans, been associated with Satanism by ill-informed officials. However, the National Party wishes to advise that we fully support freedom of religion and that there would be no witch-hunt of any practitioners of Wicca, Odinic Rite or any of the other Pagan practices. Pagans are welcome to celebrate Imbolc, Beltane or any other festival in public, as long as the particular group does not break any of the laws of the Republic. The reference to Satanism refers to destructive religion that developed as an inversion of Christian beliefs and is an open worship of evil. Paganism does not worship evil and it is a force for good in society. The senseless killing of a 16-year old boy at a school in Krugersdorp under the alleged influence of Satanism has prompted the suggestion that there should be acted against Satanism. [12] Finally, again we wish to advise that the Pagan community can rest assured that their rights to worship will be protected by the National Party once we have been elected to office. We sincerely hope this statement has clarified all misunderstandings regarding our religious policy." [13]
A "misunderstanding amongst the Pagan community regarding the NP's statement on Satanism..."? Hardly!
Clearly the misunderstanding, to which Labuschagne refers in his press release, wholly belonged to Mr. Uys who, on behalf of the National Party, undertook to promote a religious policy that clearly and plainly intended to discriminate against identified religious minorities, namely Satanism (not a Pagan religion) and Witchcraft (a Pagan religion).
Whilst SAPRA and S.A. Pagans generally were relieved and welcomed Labuschagne's statement of tolerance with regard to Paganism in South Africa, [14] I believe the NP's statement was nothing but a political move to counter potential negative publicity in light of their previous statement made in correspondence to SAPRA. Labuschagne knows that political parties may not promote policies which contradict the essence of the Bill of Rights, namely equality and dignity.
As it stands, the NP's statement of acceptance of Paganism, whilst flattering for Pagans, remains in my opinion in contravention of the Bill of Rights in that it clearly reaffirms the NP's intention to openly and publicly discriminate against Satanism.
Should Pagans allow the NP to discriminate against any minority religion, as long as it's not us? Obviously, if we are going to remain true to the spirit and letter of the Bill of Rights the answer must be no. But that's a different struggle and one Satanists themselves must challenge.
Refreshing as it is to know that Witches in South Africa live in a country where we are afforded the opportunity to object, to petition, to challenge the status quo and sometimes, to win our argument for religious equality and dignity for all South Africans irrespective of belief, opinion or religion, this short and bitter-sweet campaign should remind us to remain constantly vigilant. If history has any lesson for us it is that the evil of the past was built on the prejudices of today.
References:
[1] National Party
http://www.nationalparty.co.za/index.htm
[2] Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa
http://www.elections.org.za/
[3] Online References on Juan Duval Uys
a) 'NP is back, itching for a fight'
by Janet Smith
b) 'Chabaan bewitched Zille'
Independent Online - Cape Town,South Africa
[4] National Party statement on Religion and Education
Accessed 18 August 2008. Note: this page was removed by the NP on 1 September
[5] correspondence from J. Duval Uys (NP) to D. Leff (SAPRA) dated 18 August 2008
[6] Ibid.
[7] National Party intends to suppress Witchcraft (18 August 2008)
http://www.paganrightsalliance.org/press.htm
[8] National Party website contact form
http://www.nationalparty.co.za/contact%20us.htm
[9] SAPRA and the SAPC objection against the National Party's policy on Religion and Religious Instruction in Schools. (19 August 2008)
[10] SAPRA and SAPC objection to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) against the registration of the National Party as a political party. (19 August 2008)
[11] NP National Director of Legal Services J.M.T. Labuschagne
Spokesperson Religion and Cultural affairs
http://www.nationalparty.co.za/leadership.htm
[12] 'Psychologist: Satanic label simplistic'
by Vivian Attwood
[13] 'National Party South Africa (NP) On Paganism'
[14] SAPRA's response to the National Party's statement on Paganism
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