Discrimination by virtue of ignorance
by Damon Leff
You can’t kill the Spirit, She is like a mountain.
Old and strong, She goes on and on and on.
Monica Sjoo
The international community defines discrimination as “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference which is based on any ground such as race, colour, language, religion, national or social origin, birth or other status, and which has the
purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by all persons, on an equal footing, of all rights and freedoms". [32]
Article 27 of the ‘International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights’ states: "In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language". [33]
Article 5 of the ‘Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities’ obliges all governments to consider the legitimate interests of minorities in developing national policies and programmes. It is important here to note that these minority rights are not subject to official recognition of a minority by a government.
This international right is echoed in section 31 (1) of Chapter Two of the Constitution of South Africa.
31. (1) Persons belonging to a cultural, religious or linguistic community may not be denied the right, with other members of that community a. to enjoy their culture, practice their religion and use their language; and b. to form, join and maintain cultural, religious and linguistic associations and other organs of civil society. [34]
According to both international and South African law the African National Congress, as the governing party of the republic, is legally obligated to consider the legitimate interests of South African Witches in developing national policies and programmes to correct inequalities to which Witches are subjected. In this instance, with special regard to ensuring that Witches in this country are able to benefit equally from every other right enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
A refusal to engage with or speak to representatives of our religious minority constitutes a crime under international convention and law. Dismissing the legitimate concerns of Witches in a country prone to sporadic Witch-hunts constitutes criminal negligence in the pursuance of the protection of the rights of an already visible and recognized religious minority.
Are the concerns raised by the South African Pagan Rights Alliance legitimate?
In order to allow the reader a context within which to judge the answer to this question it is necessary to review an existing precedent for both legitimacy of concern and government intervention.
During the 1990's the expelling and killing of suspected Witches occurred frequently in several provinces. The frequency of occurrence of Witch hunts within the Limpopo Province prompted the former Premier of Limpopo Province in 1995, Advocate
Ngoako Ramathlodi, to appoint a Commission of Inquiry to investigate, amongst other things, the phenomenon of Witch purging.
The 'Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft Violence and Ritual Murder in the Northern Province' chaired by Professor
N. V. Ralushai revealed the tragedy of Witch purging. The Ralushai Report found that prior to 1980 suspected Witches identified through various methods of divination by "witchdoctors" (diviners or traditional healers acting as Witch-finders) were apprehended by members of their community and killed without trial. Many testified before the commission that some murders were politically instigated.
In response to the ongoing purge of alleged Witches the Commission for Gender
Equality (CGE) convened a 'National Conference on Witchcraft Violence' in Thohoyandou, Venda, in September 1998. The 'Thohoyandou Declaration on Ending Witchcraft Violence' (1998) [35] was issued by the CGE in response to the findings of the conference on 10 September.
Participants of The Witchcraft Violence Conference, including survivors and perpetrators of violence against suspected Witches, supported the assertion that accusations of Witchcraft were most often simply motivated by jealousy and that victims of such violence were innocent of the allegations made against them. The Commission released its final report on the conference in Pietersburg in March 1999.
The National Conference on Witchcraft Violence served as a catalyst to structures that previously ignored the life-threatening effects of violence against accused Witches on families and communities. Political parties including the African National Congress, safety and security institutions, civic organizations, religious groups and labour movements committed themselves to stopping the violence with the adoption of the Declaration.
Following the findings of the 1995 Ralushai Commission and several successive national and regional Conferences, the Commission recommended, a) encouraging Traditional healers to "emphasize the curative and preventative aspect of medicine,
instead of pointing out so-called witches", b) prosecuting perpetrators of ritual murders (including human mutilations) and instigators of Witch hunts, and c) drafting appropriate legislation to govern the activities of Traditional Healers.
In response to the findings of the Conference the CGE launched its ‘Action Plan for the Eradication of Witchcraft Violence’ (1999) [36] by committing itself to monitoring the progress of “legislative reform, victim support, the reintegration of victims into communities, and reconciliation and public education programmes” aimed at eradicating ‘witchcraft violence’.
Incidences of Witchcraft accusations and revenge attacks have however continued unabated despite the findings of the Thohoyandou Declaration on Ending Witchcraft Violence and in spite of the CGE’s undertaking in 1999 to monitor the progress of reconciliation and public education programmes aimed at eradicating Witchcraft violence in the execution of its ‘Action Plan for the Eradication of Witchcraft Violence’.
In its own independent review of both commissions and summary proposals to end Witchcraft accusations and violence against suspected or alleged Witches, the South African Pagan Rights Alliance has identified the following concerns as being of
relevance to Witches as well as to government with regard to the implementation of national policies and programmes aimed at preventing ongoing Witchcraft related violence.
Ralushai Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft Violence and Ritual Murder in the Northern Province'
a. Ralushai Commission failed to identify stakeholders.
Whilst the Ralushai Commission’s recommendations appear to have been addressed, especially with regard to Traditional healers, as is evidenced by the establishment of codes of conduct for registered Traditional healers that emphasize the role and function of iSangomas and iNyangas as healers, and through the drafting of legislation to regulate the activities of Traditional healers, the Commission failed to consider the concerns or elicit the testimony of important stakeholders – Witches themselves.
Generally held bias against Witches by both the communities who participated in this Inquiry, as evidenced in Professor Ralushai’s findings on the Inquiry chaired by him and in his subsequent testimony before the CGE’s national conference on the
definition of Witchcraft, merely served to reinforce prejudicial Witch stereotypes.
It should be self-evident that a complete and thorough understanding of the phenomenon of Witchcraft within a South African context would require, at the very least, a comparative narrative between traditionally held beliefs concerning Witches
and actual first hand testimony of what Witchcraft is from an actual practitioner of Witchcraft.
b. Ralushai Commission presentation of findings and recommendations based on prejudicial hearsay.
The Commission was presented with hearsay evidence concerning Witchcraft by people who did not self-define as Witches and who had no actual experiential knowledge of Witchcraft. In every instance the testimonies of Witch hunters and victims of Witch hunts portrayed Witchcraft solely as a malevolent force or action which leads to harm.
The commission’s selective and culturally as well as religiously biased inquiry could never have identified the need for already identified stakeholders such as Traditional healers to engage with actual Witches to find solutions to ongoing Witchcraft accusations which would not prejudice Witches as an unintended consequence.
It could be argued that the drafting of the Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill in 2007 by the Mpumalanga legislature to suppress Witchcraft in the province could have been avoided entirely in 1995 had the Ralushai Commission been made aware
of the existence of a religious minority who used the terms ‘Witch’ and ‘Witchcraft’ with which to define themselves and their religion.
It is important to consider also, given the existing prejudice against Witchcraft, whether or not self-defined Witches living in the northern provinces in 1995 would have been welcomed to testify before such an Inquiry, and also whether their
testimony would have been permitted to contribute towards a renewal or rehabilitation of the stereotypical definitions of Witchcraft presented and reaffirmed by the Commission.
c. Ralushai Commission findings institutionalized deliberate bias and prejudice against Witchcraft and Witches.
The presentation of testimony on Witchcraft before the Commission was deliberately biased against Witchcraft in that it prejudged both the nature of Witchcraft and stereotyped its adherents as morally delinquent, spiritually bereft and criminally complicit in the harm perceived generally and reinforced by the retelling of well-worn urban legends and, in many instances, deliberate defamation and slander. One need only review the actual testimony to confirm this.
Given the absence of a moderating perspective, albeit one derived from within a European Pagan context, Professor Ralushai defined and later, testifying before the Commission for Gender Equality, reinforced the definition of a Witch as, … a person who through sheer malice, either consciously or subconsciously, employs magical means to inflict all manner of evil on their fellow human beings. They destroy property, bring disease or misfortune and cause death, often entirely without provocation to satisfy their inherent craving for evil doing. [37]
The unintended consequence of reinforcing and institutionalizing negative stereotyping against Witches merely served to reinforce the erroneous notion that Witches are indeed sub-human, unconscious of their evil influence, and always to be
regarded with suspicion and loathing.
Persistent negative stereotypes add fuel to the fire within institutionalized
racism. The presence of stereotypes matters because of their influence on interpersonal interactions. Stereotypes not only contribute to patterns of social segregation, they also shape views of crime, crime policy, and welfare policy, especially if contextual information is stereotype-consistent. [38]
As has already been discussed previously, the recent use of this negative stereotyping by both Jacob Zuma and Tokyo Sexwale against members of the Congress of the People once again served to reinforce public prejudice against Witchcraft and Witches.
South African Witches regard harmful stereotypical definitions of Witchcraft as injurious to their dignity and the use of the terms Witch and Witchcraft to describe criminal activities as unfair discrimination. Accusations of Witchcraft (in any
language) brings into disrepute anyone who may self-identify as a Witch, irrespective of whether or not said self-defined Witch is a European Pagan or a practitioner of Traditional African magic.
Commission for Gender Equality 'National Conference on Witchcraft Violence'
d. CGE Commission failed to monitor progress of legislative reform.
Extract from the ‘Thohoyandou Declaration On Ending Witchcraft Violence’ (10 September, 1998)
LEGISLATIVE REFORM: The Witchcraft Suppression Act 3 of 1957 falls short of a pragmatic approach to the issue of witchcraft, and may in fact be fuelling witchcraft violence. Legislative reform is required as matter of urgency. We call on the government to repeal the Witchcraft Suppression Act and introduce;
(1) Legislation dealing with the issue of witchcraft, so that those who are engaged in harmful practices can be separated out from those who are falsely accused; and so that those who make false accusations can be brought to book. Such legislation would, inter alia,
* Represent a paradigm shift from the current act which operates from a premise that denies the belief in witchcraft; leading to the Issue being dealt with outside the criminal justice system.
* Provide clear definitions for words and concepts such as "witch", "wizard" and "witchcraft".
* Introduce structures to deal with certain witchraft-related complaints by means of conciliation and mediation, thereby attempting to resolve underlying tensions.
(2) Legislation to control the practice of traditional healing: which should be accompanied by a Code of Conduct to ensure that the practice of traditional medicine is separated from sinister practices.
The conference requested the Commission for Gender Equality to convene a meeting with the Ministry of Justice and other interest groups to initiate the above legislative reform in October. [39]
The CGE failed to honour its commitment to monitoring the progress of legislative reform.
Given the absence of evidence before the National Conference on Witchcraft Violence of the existence of a primarily caucasian religious minority who identify their religion as Witchcraft and who self-define as Witches, the CGE failed in its undertaking to identify all relevant stakeholders by relying solely on stakeholders identified at the conference [40]. The consequence of this error of omission has resulted in the following failures.
The CGE’s recommendation to government to “represent a paradigm shift from the current act which operates under the premise that denies the belief in witchcraft” seeks to institutionalize a legislative definition of Witchcraft, one that prejudges all Witches, irrespective of skin colour or cultural origin, as criminals.
Professor Ralushai and the work and findings of the Ralushai led 1998 Commission served as an important stakeholder in consultations with the CGE. It is therefore logical to assume that the given prejudicial definition of Witchcraft presented by Ralushai in Thohoyandou in 1999 before the CGE, and again before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission amnesty hearing on 12 July 1999 [41] would become the accepted and unchallenged definition of use when approaching legislative reform.
“A Witch is said to be a person who through sheer malice, either consciously or subconsciously, employs magical means to inflict all manner of evil on their fellow human beings. They destroy property, bring disease or misfortune and cause death, often entirely without provocation to satisfy their inherent craving for evil doing.” N.V. Ralushai
The recommendation to reinforce and institutionalize a negative stereotype against Witches and against Witchcraft prejudices both citizens of this country and an internationally recognized and identified religion.
The same errors of omission and prejudice were repeated in Mpumalanga in 2007 when a similar recommendation to address the “problem of Witchcraft” in this province prompted the Provincial Department to draft a Witchcraft Suppression Bill. The Bill sought to criminalize South African citizens who defined their religion as Witchcraft. [42]
The drafters of the Bill were unaware of the unintended consequences of their draft on an existing religious community. One may presume that the drafter/s were operating on the assumption that either a) Witchcraft was a superstition used by
unscrupulous individuals to cause harm to others, or b) Witchcraft was a real threat to communities and individuals and needed to be suppressed. The content of the Bill certainly confirms this assumption.
In February 2007 the South African Pagan Rights Alliance submitted a request to the Commission for Gender Equality for a formal inquiry into the ongoing persecution of innocent persons falsely accused of being Witches and of practicing Witchcraft in South Africa. The letter of appeal, dated 12 February 2007, has never been responded to by CGE, despite numerous and continuous reminders. The conference requested the Commission for Gender Equality to convene a
meeting with the Ministry of Justice and other interest groups to initiate the above legislative reform in October. (1998)
In July 2007 the Alliance requested the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to intervene to prevent the passage of the Mpumalanga Bill and appealed for legislative reform to
the Witchcraft Suppression Act (Act 3 of 1957 as amended by Act 50 of 1970). [43] The Alliance also requested the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) to repeal the Witchcraft Suppression Act. In July 2008 the Law Reform Commission
agreed to conduct a preliminary investigation in order to determine whether or not the Act should be repealed. [44]
In a combined submission in motivation of repeal of Act 3. on behalf of the Pagan Rights Alliance and the South African Pagan Council (SAPC), the Alliance made specific reference to the recommendation of the Commission for Gender Equality in
1998 to convene a meeting with the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development to request that Act 3 be repealed on the grounds that it may be fuelling Witchcraft violence.
One may be forgiven for assuming that CGE was requesting the Department of Justice to repeal Act 3 on the grounds that it criminalized South African citizens who defined as Witches. To date, the Commission for Gender Equality has not responded
to the numerous requests made to participate in recent developments regarding Witchcraft legislation.
e. CGE Commission failed to identify all victims of Witch hunts.
Given that the CGE Commission had failed to consider the unintentional constitutional infringement of the rights of a religious minority in its attempt to bring an end to violence against alleged Witches, one may assume that the CGE did not
regard actual Witches as potential victims of Witch hunts, or considered this to be of secondary importance to the attempt to reintegrate victims of Witch hunts who did not self-identify as Witches.
No previous commission or conference on Witchcraft has identified the need to investigate if and in what manner, negatively stereotyping and institutionalized prejudice against Witchcraft has resulted in unfair discrimination against Witches.
The assumption that it hasn’t unfairly prejudiced caucasian Witches because they have not been the victims of Witchcraft violence, an assumption often directed at Witches campaigning for religious equality, does not take cognizance of the full
effects of institutionalized prejudice.
In 1990 the Canadian Supreme Court described the harm that might result from institutionalized prejudice by examining the effects of the advocacy of hatred.
"Although the words 'advocacy of hatred' are capable of a narrow construction, the focus is likely to be placed on the second element:
'incitement to cause harm'. In R. v Keegstra [1990] 3 SCR 697, the Canadian Supreme Court described the 'harm' that may result from hate speech. The Court stated that emotional damage caused by words may have grave psychological and social consequences. A response of humiliation and degradation from the individual targeted by hate propaganda is to be expected. A person's sense of human dignity and belonging to a community at large is closely linked to the concern and respect accorded the groups to which he or she belongs. The derision, hostility and abuse encouraged by hate propaganda therefore have a severely negative impact on an individual's sense of self-worth and acceptance." [45]
f. CGE Commission failed to facilitate reconciliation and education.
The CGE’s recommendation to facilitate reconciliation and public education programmes aimed at eradicating witchcraft violence did not facilitate reconciliation between Traditional Healers who still believe that Witchcraft should be suppressed, and Witches who seek to eradicate bias and prejudice against Witchcraft.
It also failed to reconcile the fundamental differences between two opposing cultural and religious world-views when addressing Witchcraft. Instead of facilitating an understanding of Witchcraft from a Pagan perspective the CGE supported culturally biased and prejudicial assumptions about Witchcraft. No public education or policy programmes to combat prejudice against Witchcraft were introduced.
Elegy for a Dead Witch
To think that you are gone, over the crest of the hills,
As the Moon passed from her fullness, riding the sky,
And the White Mare took you with her.
To think that we will wait another life
To drink wine from the horns and leap the fire.
Farewell from this world, but not from the Circle.
That place that is between the worlds
Shall hold return in due time. Nothing is lost.
The half of a fruit from the tree of Avalon
Shall be our reminder, among the fallen leaves
This life treads underfoot. Let the rain weep.
Waken in sunlight from the Realms of Sleep.
Doreen Valiente – to the memory of Robert Cochrane
References:
[32] Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Fact Sheet No.18 (Rev.1), Minority Rights
Provisions For The Promotion And Protection Of The Rights Of Persons Belonging To Minorities
[33] Ibid.
[34] Section 31 (1) of Chapter Two of the Constitution of South Africa
[35] ‘The Thohoyandou Declaration on Ending Witchcraft Violence’
[36] Witchcraft Violence: We Have A Plan
Issued by the Commission for Gender Equality Communications Unit on 29 March 1999
[37] Definition of Witchcraft presented by Professor N. V. Ralushai
Report of the Ralushai Commission of Inquiry into Witchcraft Violence and Ritual Murder in the
Northern Province, 1995
[38] Institutional Racism – the function of stereotypes
[39] Extract from the ‘Thohoyandou Declaration On Ending Witchcraft Violence’ (10 September, 1998)
Recommendations on Legislative Reform
[40] Commission for Gender Equality Press Release
Withcraft Violence - We have a Plan
Quote: The Plan - The CGE took up this issue in 1998 and conducted further investigations, which led to
the National Conference on Witchcraft Violence, the first of its kind in the province. The Commission is
now leading stakeholders, identified at the conference, in the National Action Plan for the Eradication of
Witchcraft Violence. The plan includes legislative reform, victim support, reintegration of victims into
communities, reconciliation and public education programmes. The CGE will play a key role in monitoring
the progress of all interventions in the province. End quote.
Issued by the CGE Communications Unit, 29 March 1999
[41] Truth and Reconciliation Commission Amnesty Hearing 12 July 1999
Submission by Prof V N Ralushai
Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Amnesty Committee
Volume Six • Section One • Chapter Three
[42] Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill (2007)
[43] South African Pagan Rights Alliance appeal for legislative reform
Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill (2007) and Witchcraft Suppression Act (Act 3 of 1957 as
amended by Act 50 of 1970) - July 2007
[44] South African Law Reform Commission release
[45] Canadian Supreme Court definition of ‘Advocacy of Hatred’
Bill of Rights Handbook - Published by Juta & Co LTD. 2001 ISBN 0 7021 5471 7
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