Press Release 2022

OCCULT HERITAGE MONTH

The South African Pagan Rights Alliance – SAPRA is proud to announce a virtual (online) seminar, dedicated to the celebration of the heritage of Left-hand path religions and philosophies in South Africa.
Date: 24 September 2022
Time: 11:00-13:00

CALL FOR PAPERS
Theme: Dancing Under A (South) African Moon: New Religious Movements in a Christian hegemonised context.

If you are a practitioner of Paganism, Witchcraft, Luciferianism, Shamanism, or Satanism, we invite you to come and join us in a public discussion, reflecting information on beliefs and practices within the South African Pagan community in celebration of its sacred Occult heritage. All submissions, academic and non-academic, are welcome.

Submit submissions by Thursday, 22 September 2022

Press Release 2022

Occult Heritage Month, moral entrepreneurs and folk devils

The South African Pagan Rights Alliance celebrates Occult Heritage Month in September by re-exploring our collective historical occult heritage; including diverse topics such as Neoplatonism and Hermeticism, Mysticism, Alchemy, the Western Magic Traditions, Theurgy and Goetia, Divination, Spiritism, and the birth of Neo-Paganism.

For some evangelical Christians however, the mention of Occultism conjures only fearful primal fantasies of the loss of assumed religious authority, spirit possession, the adjuration of demonic forces and the hidden machinations of fabricated folk devils. A century ago, they might have organised a good witch-hunt. Today they tend to ply their false witness against identified religious minorities through the media.

Press Release 2022, Witchcraft Suppression Act

SALRC calls for comment on review of Witchcraft Suppression Act

Revised Discussion Paper 158, Project 135: The Review of the Witchcraft Suppression Act 3 of 1957.

The Alliance has received an invitation from the South African Law Reform Commission to comment on a revised discussion paper for Project 135 (The Review of the Witchcraft Suppression Act 3 of 1957), released for public comment. The closing date for comment is 31 October 2022.

Press Releases 2021, Witchcraft Suppression Act

UPDATE: Project 135 Review of Act 3 of 1957

The following correspondence has been submitted to the Department for Justice and Constitutional Development. This Alliance trusts that international consensus on this matter will persuade the honourable Minister, and the South African Law Reform Commission, to revisit it’s hesitancy in recommending that the Legislature set aside the Witchcraft Suppression Act as clearly inconsistent with both Constitutional and International law, without further delay.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2021, Witchcraft Suppression Act

UN Human Rights Council Resolution 47

The United Nations Human Rights Council’s draft resolution 47 entitled “Elimination of harmful practices related to accusations of witchcraft and ritual attacks” finally, although indirectly only, acknowledges that Witchcraft is not the mischief requiring regulation or prohibition. The draft correctly identifies the true harm requiring remedy; the human rights abuses which flow from accusations of witchcraft.

Press Releases 2021, Your Rights

Consumers are protected against delinquent suppliers

Have you ordered and paid for merchandise that was never delivered? Have you subsequently been refused a refund on demand for that undelivered order? Has a supplier demanded a cancellation fee for an undelivered order? The Consumer Protection Act protects your right to fair and honest dealing by promoting fair business practices, and by protecting consumers from unconscionable, unfair, unreasonable, unjust or otherwise improper trade practices; and deceptive, misleading, unfair or fraudulent conduct.

Witchcraft Suppression Act, Your Rights

Don’t curse in the public square

What is not at issue here is the Constitutional right of Witches to identify as Witches, to profess to have knowledge of Witchcraft, and to practice Witchcraft.

The Constitutional rights to freedom of religion, belief and association, do not protect any right to practice magical rituals designed to curse others, whether to protect an innocent from harm, or to avenge a wrong. The Witchcraft Suppression Act prohibits the practice of harmful magic intended to curse another.

South African law expressly prohibits the practice of magic in such a way as to cause harm, or to harass another in such a way as to inspire the reasonable belief that harm may be caused, or to utter or convey a threat which might induce a fear of being harmed through the use of witchcraft.

Your Rights

Defamation and ‘witch-wars’ on social media

South African Pagans are not immune from inter-personal disagreements and personality conflicts. We are, after all, human. But we are also the objects of both fear and hatred by many non-Pagan South Africans. Our enemies ply their defamation against us through religious admonitions and condemnations.

Innocent people falsely accused of being witches and of practicing witchcraft to cause harm are often assaulted and murdered in this country. False accusations tarnish reputations and ruin livelihoods. No-one is immune to the harm caused by malicious gossip on social media. The accusers are not immune from justice either.

Press Releases 2021

Dr Arthur Frost invokes religious intolerance against ancestor veneration

Dr Arthur Frost’s recent Facebook call to action against the legal right of non-Christian South Africans to celebrate ancestral veneration amounts to incitement to discrimination, and is motivated by religious prejudice. The South African Pagan Rights Alliance calls on all South Africans to condemn Frost’s call to action as a rejection of the Constitutional values of freedom, dignity and equality.

Press Releases 2021

Eastern Cape school closed for exorcism

On April 13 news headlines read “Eastern Cape school closed for exorcism after pupils captured by evil spirits”.

This is not the first case of hysteria in public schools in South Africa. In the past, pastors were invited to schools as a matter of course in order to deal with untested and unproven allegations of supernatural activity.

SAPRA appeals to the Minister of Basic Education Ms Matsie Motshekga, MEC Mr. Gade David Fundile, and the Eastern Cape Department of Education, to put an end to the charade of pandering to the fantasies of teenagers. Stop using public schools to proselytise religious prejudice and bigotry.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2021

Cultural beliefs, religious identity and secular humanism

We honour Leo Igwe for his own successful campaigns against “child witchcraft accusations” in Nigeria.

We accept that his campaigns seek to deny the existence of Witches and Witchcraft; a natural consequence of his atheism. Our own campaigns in South Africa do not seek to deny the fact that real Witches do exist. We admit that navigating the thin line between religious identity and prejudicial accusation is always frought with difficulty.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2021, Remember their Names

REMEMBER THEIR NAMES – Victims of witch-hunts in South Africa 2000 to 2021

On 5 April 2021, Jostina Sangweni (59) was brutally beaten and burned alive in Soweto after being accused of witchcraft. She succumbed to her injuries and died in hospital.

’30 Days of Advocacy against Witchcraft Accusations and Witch-hunts’ – 29 March to 27 April.
https://paganrightsalliance.org/advocacy/

Touchstone Advocacy (on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/TouchstoneAdvocacy/

Your Rights, Your Rights Newsletter

Your Rights Issue 1 April 2021

SAPRA’s first issue of our quarterly newsletter, Your Rights.

In anticipation of yet another long year of lockdown and anxiety, we’ve devoted this issue to offering practical advice on matters with which you might have become all too familiar since March 2020, including lawful eviction procedure, health protocols in the workplace, and COVID vaccinations and the law, as well as articles on crafting a Bindrune for Justice, Deities associated with the Law, and making an Incantation Bowl to ward against illness and misfortune.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2021

30 Days of Advocacy against Witchcraft Accusations and Witch-hunts – 29 March to 27 April 2021

During Human Rights Month – 21 March to 27 April – the South African Pagan Rights Alliance will be launching its annual ’30 Days of Advocacy against Witchcraft Accusations and Witch-hunts’ on 29 March 2021. If you would like to support this campaign, share links to our advocacy web-page and our Facebook page ‘Touchstone Advocacy’, and share our advocacy banner as your profile image.

Press Releases 2020

SAPRA Director’s Report – 2020

SAPRA would like to encourage South African Pagans to continue to observe COVID health protocols – wear a mask when in a public space, observe social distancing, avoid gathering in large crowds whether indoors or outdoors, and be mindful at all times of the suffering of their fellow citizens. Assist others where you can, however you are able. During a time such as this one, everyone needs to have access to certainty (as much as there can be) in order to make informed decisions. This virus does not care if you don’t believe in it. Take care.

Press Releases 2020, Uncategorized, Your Rights

Education exemption and homeschooling

If you are unwilling to accept the very real risk of coronavirus contagion to your child or members of your family as a consequence of sending your child back to school, SAPRA advises applying for partial or conditional exemption from attendance. Parents seeking to homeschool their child must register for home schooling.
According to section 4(1) of the South African Schools Act, “A Head of Department may exempt a learner entirely, partially, or conditionally from compulsory school attendance if it is in the best interests of the learner.”

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2020

Witch-hunts: scapegoating, unfair discrimination and criminal acts

On Sunday morning, 15 March, an unnamed 83 year old woman and her 23 year old granddaughter became the first reported victims of witchcraft accusation in 2020. The grandmother was drowned by her assailants in a drum of water. Her granddaughter narrowly escaped being burned alive. The perpetrators alleged that the grandmother was guilty of bewitching a young man who was buried the day before in Majuba Village, Sterkspruit, in the Eastern Cape. These victims are the latest in a very long and growing list of individuals and families who have become scapegoats for unmerited blame in South Africa.

Press Releases 2019, Your Rights

Children have a right not to be spanked!

Parents are no longer entitled to chastise a child using violence! The Constitutional Court held that “The application of force or a resort to violence, which could be harmful or abused, cannot in circumstances where there is an effective non-violent option available be said to be consonant with the best interests of a child.”
In terms of Section 110 of the Children’s Amendment Act, there is a general duty on certain citizens to report domestic abuse and violence against children. Ordinary citizens are given the discretion to report abuse when they become aware of it.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2019

Campaign against witchcraft accusations and witch-hunts in South Africa – 29 March to 7 April.

Campaign against witchcraft accusations and witch-hunts in South Africa from 29 March to 7 April. Advocacy against human rights abuses committed as a result of accusations of witchcraft and violent witch-hunts.https://www.paganrightsalliance.org/advocacy/ Remember their namesVictims of witch-hunts in South Africa 2000 to 2018.https://www.paganrightsalliance.org/remember-their-names/