Criticism of the ritual slaughter of a bull by African National Congress politician Tony Yengeni violates the Constitution, the Cultural, Religion and Linguistic Rights Commission on Thursday.
Of concern is South Africans’ ignorance of each others’ beliefs and practices, commission chairperson Mongezi Guma said.
As a result, there is a tendency to undermine culture and religion with the imposition of Western ideological practices on indigenous practices, he said.
”It is ethnocentric and undermining to hide behind animal rights and deny human beings their rights to uphold and practise their cultures and religions.
”Even more serious is the temptation to violate the Constitution, which protects the cultural and religious rights of all who live in South Africa,” Guma said.
Guma said that although the commission acknowledges that society has a duty to care for animals, one cannot equate human rights to those of animals.
”Animal rights can’t compete with those of humans. Our Constitution specifies the notion of protection of human beings and their sense of who they are in terms of culture and religion.
”The issue that begs serious consideration is whether the policy and legislative framework applied by the SPCA [Society for the prevention of cruelty to animals] is consistent with the provisions and the spirit of the Constitution,” said Guma.
Guma said the presumption that African cultures are cruel to women and animals needs to be erased in order to create a tolerant society.
He criticised comments made by Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, who earlier this week condemned Yengeni’s action, saying that people also use culture to justify discrimination against women.
Said Guma: ”We accept that Yengeni’s actions were performed in context of culture. It is unfair to single out Yengeni in all this because the decision to have the bull slaughtered was not his but that of his clan.
”The animal rights activists have to recognise the fact that the practice of slaughtering animals for cultural and religious purposes has been practised by communities for many years.”
The SPCA has indicated that it intends investigating criminal charges against Yengeni for spearing the bull before it was slaughtered at his parents’ home in Guguletu, Cape Town, over the weekend.
The slaughter was part of a cleansing ritual following his recent release from prison after serving four months of a four-year sentence for fraud.
Cultural practices dictated that the bull be prodded with a spear to make it burp or make some sound — symbolising that the ancestors were accepting the ritual.
”To say that Yengeni speared the bull is not correct. He in fact prodded the bull as part of culture before it is slaughtered,” said commissioner Nokuzola Mndende.
”There is a saying in Xhosa that if the bull does not burp during a ritual it must be released, so it is important for the bull to burp before it slaughtered,” Mndende said.
The commission said it wants to create a platform where people can educate one another about their different cultures.
It called for talks with the SPCA over the way in which animals were slaughtered in various cultures and religions. — Sapa