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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: June 2007

Cultural defense of cruelty to bulls succeeds in South Africa

 

CAPE TOWN--Asked to recognize bullfighting as a "World Heritage" cultural rite, the United Nations Educational & Scientific Organization may look toward South Africa for precedents--and find sharply contradictory examples.

On the one hand, UNESCO project officer for peace, human rights and democracy Ben Boys in 2003 lauded South Africa for becoming the first nation in Africa to add humane education to the national school curriculum.

On the other, the South African National SPCA has repeatedly been unable to accomplish anything to reduce the ritual mayhem inflicted on bulls as part of the Zulu "First Fruits" festival, revived in 1992 after the end of apartheid.

"We are not allowed to interfere," Cape of Good Hope SPCA spokesperson Cher Poznanovich told Los Angeles Times staff writer Robyn Dixon in February 2007. "They gouge out the bulls' eyes, tear their testicles, and kill the bulls with their bare hands."

The cultural pretext for the "First Fruits" festival spilled over into personal conduct in January 2007, when a politically well-placed convicted criminal escaped cruelty charges that could have returned him to prison.

"Tony Yengeni, former African National Congress party chief whip in the South African Parliament, was convicted of defrauding Parliament by failing to declare a massive discount on a luxury vehicle during arms deal negotiations," summarized Humane Education Trust founder Louise van der Merwe. "He was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released on parole after serving only four months.

"According to news reports," van der Merwe told ANIMAL PEOPLE, "Yengeni and Malmesbury Prison deputy director Chris van Rensburg travelled 150 kilometres to Porterville to collect a bull for ritual slaughter at his home in Guguletu, Cape Town, on January 19, 2007.

"According to the Cape Argus, 'Yengeni exerted much effort trying to herd the bullock into the garden, while one of his business mogul friends even resorted to biting the animal's tail to get it to move.' Yengeni stabbed the bull with his family's traditional spear. A group of young men then completed the slaughter.

"Two sheep were slaughtered after the bull," van de Merwe continued. "According to the Argus, 'As the skin was removed from the first sheep, ANC Youth League member Lunga Ncwana joked with friends that it was a trauma for the other sheep, who was waiting tied up nearby.' According to the Argus, the ritual killing of the bull and sheep was 'to wash away the prison curse and integrate Yengeni spiritually and physically with his family. The crying of the animal indicated 'the acceptance of the ceremony by the ancestors.'"

Asked van der Merwe, "How can we fight crime and violence when our leaders callously commit cruel acts of violence against those who are totally defenseless? South Africa's leaders need to realize that if they want to be world players, they need to leave anachronisms behind.

"As Ben Boys put it in 2003, when he launched the U.N. Decade of Education for Sustainable Development," and helped van der Merwe to present the first All-Africa Humane Education Summit, "'Teaching children to respect and care for animals and the wider environment is an important step in sustainable development and respect for human rights. As the intellectual leaders of our nations, we are duty bound to lead the way to justice and humanity.'"

Pet store employee Jenna Hanslip reportedly filed a cruelty complaint against Yengeni, based on the Argus account and an accompanying photograph.

"If these allegations are true, then this is definitely a criminal offence under the Animal Protection Act," Cape of Good Hope SPCA spokesperson Andries Venter told the South African Press Association.

"For this kind of an offence a court could sentence a person to up to 12 months imprisonment."

Pledged Venter, "Once we have completed our investigation, we will forward the docket to the police, who will then hand it over to the state prosecutor for a decision" about how to proceed.

But Arts & Culture ministry spokesperson Sandile Memela asserted that, "It is the constitutional right of all indigenous families, groups and families to perform rituals that they believe reconnect them to their ancestors."

Comparing Yengeni's killing to Muslim and Jewish halaal and kosher slaughter, Memela denounced what she termed "selective racism that condemns this specific African ritual." However, Muslim and Jewish slaughtering rules forbid killing or butchering animals in front of each other, and were intended to kill animals by the fastest, least painful means available at the time they were codified.

Said South African Human Rights Commission chair Jody Kollapen, "The Commission's perspective is that one cannot take a simplistic approach to matters like thisS¹We would urge the National SPCA to engage in a public debate around the issues relating to culture and cultural liberty and the SPCA's mandate to prevent cruelty to animals."

Responded Cape of Good Hope SPCA chief executive Allan Perrins, "We are legally compelled to address any and all suspected cases of cruelty to animals, and have done so for 135 years. The SPCA recognises that every citizen's right to practise cultural activities is legally protected, and recognises the validity and importance of ritual slaughter. The circumstances under which animals were slaughtered, not the practice of animal slaughter, is the focus of our investigation."

Announced Venter two days later, "There is inadequate evidence or witnesses to proceed with the prosecution, and as a result we have decided to drop our investigation."

But the matter was hardly ended.

Taunted labor minister Membathisi Mdladlana, "I invite the NSPCA to join us," at a ceremony to honor King Mampuru of the Bapedi nation and King Nyabela of amaNdebele in Limpopo. "We will be slaughtering a bull without euthanasing it," Mdladlana boasted. "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."

NSPCA chief executive Marcelle Meredith initially declined the invitation, but then reconsidered and accepted it.

"As a leader of our country, the minister is sure to uphold the law, and we are confident that no suffering will take place," Meredith told the Cape Times. "We are assured there is no suffering, if the slaughter is carried out in the traditional manner by a skilled person, taking into account the transport, handling, and restraining of the animal."

Memela continued to attack. "There's no need for an organization which hasn't caught up with the social, political and cultural developments in the country to continue to throw out outdated laws that promote apartheid attitudes," she told Los Angeles Times writer Dixon.

Johannesburg Mail & Guardian columnist Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya wrote that the NSPCA response "came over as a knee-jerk reaction, inspired by a colonial desire to educate the brutish natives. A bit of South African history," Moya asserted, "would tell them that among black South Africans there has always been a perception that whites care more about animals than they do about black people."
Meredith in mid-February was still trying to put the mid-January fracas behind her.

"This was just a political issue," Meredith asserted. "I believe that the National SPCA, the Human Rights Commission, the Cultural Linguistic Rights Commission and everyone else was pulled into a political story which had nothing to do with slaughtering," she told reporters after meeting with CLRC officials.

Meredith blamed the furor on "the media" who "came to the Cape of Good Hope branch of the NSPCA with the story that Yengeni had slaughtered the bull. They should not have taken this political bait," Meredith said.

"The meeting between the NSPCA and us was fruitful and very helpful," said CLRC chair Mongezi Guma. "We made a commitment to find ways to do cultural slaughtering in a way that will promote and protect the welfare of the animals."