Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana has invited the Society for the Prevention of cruelty to animals (SPCA) to attend a ceremony during which a bull will be slaughtered.
”I invite the SPCA to join us as we will be slaughtering a bull without euthanising it. We’ll ask them to come into the kraal to share in the feast.
”We want the bull to bellow — and then we’ll sing the praises of our ancestors,” Mdladlana told a ceremony to commemorate King Mampuru of the Bapedi nation and King Nyabela of amaNdebele in Limpopo on Saturday, his department said on Sunday.
The invitation follows a furore that erupted after senior African National Congress member Tony Yengeni reportedly speared a bull before it was slaughtered at his parent’s home in Guguletu last 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.
The SPCA at first said it would investigate, but on Friday said it had insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Yengeni.
Mdladlana chided traditional leaders for keeping quiet during the row, saying that as custodians of their nation’s cultures and customs, they should have made themselves heard.
He found it outrageous that despite the present political order, the traditions of African people were still being questioned and looked down upon.
Referring to a court case earlier this month where a Limpopo farmer was fined R10 000 or two-and-a-half years’ in prison for shooting dead a boy he mistook for a dog, Mdladlana said: ”Clearly the farmer has rights more than Tony Yengeni. He can kill a dog. But a black man can’t kill a cow. I want to assure our detractors that we will continue to practise our traditions and follow our culture.”
Other detractors of Yengeni’s action were Cape Town mayor Helen Zille and Michele Pickover, author and curator at the University of the Witwatersrand’s William Cullen Library.
Those who came out in support of Yengeni’s action included the Cultural, Religion and Linguistic Rights Commission and the Western Cape department of cultural affairs.
The commission’s Nokuzola Mndende said Yengeni had merely prodded the bull. Cultural practice dictates that the bull be prodded with a spear to make it burp or make some sound — symbolising that the ancestors were accepting the ritual. — Sapa