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Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Release 2024, Remember their Names

REMEMBER THEIR NAMES – Victims of witch-hunts in South Africa 2000 to 2024

February 2024. An 85-year-old woman and her 90-year-old husband lost their lives on 12 February 2024, after their home became the alleged target of an arson attack. “The exact cause of the fire is still to be confirmed, and we are following up on all information. We are aware of the allegations of witchcraft, and this motive is still to be confirmed.” Captain Sipho Nkosi

’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/

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.

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SAPRA Directive: COVID-19 – Religious Marriage Officers

SAPRA Directive: COVID-1920 March 2020 In light of the danger posed by potential contagion to COVID-19, and in accordance with directives issued by the President of the Republic of South Africa in terms of the Disaster Management Act: 1. All non-essential travel
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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.

Press Releases 2019

DHA refuses to register heterosexual civil union marriages

At identified Department of Home Affairs branches, Home Affairs officials are refusing to register marriages between heterosexual couples married in terms of the Civil Union Act. These officials are instructing heterosexual couples that:(a) they were incorrectly married under the Civil Union Act,(b)
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Press Releases 2019, The Occult

UNISA criminologist Prof. Anni Hesselink promotes erroneous prejudicial stereotypes against Occultists.

Prof. Hesselink’s article constitutes gratuitous hate speech against a religious minority not in any way involved in crimes committed by Christians!

Press Releases 2019

SALRC Project 144 Single Marriage Statute Issue Paper 35

SAPRA submission on the South African Law Reform Commission Project 144, Single Marriage Statute, Issue Paper 35.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2019

Pastor Mboro incites violence against “witches”

The South African Pagan Rights Alliance is deeply troubled by Pastor Mboro Motsoeneng’s public prejudicial incitement against witches and witchcraft. Timeslive reported on 5 June that Incredible Happenings Ministries’ Pastor Paseka Mboro Motsoeneng “intends on ending the ‘witches’ honeymoon” in SA by
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Your Rights

Self-determination is not independence from the Republic!

Some South African Pagans are actively promoting the idea that the right to self-determination gives them the right to declare their independence from the Republic of South Africa. They are wrong! Self-determination is not independence from the Republic! Section 235 of the
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AGM

Annual General Meeting 2019

Download a copy of SAPRA’s 2019 Annual General Meeting.

Advocacy against witch-hunts, Media

Advocacy against accusations of witchcraft saves lives

The Fight to End “Witch-hunts” Continues14 April 2019 | By Star BustamonteThe Wild Hunt. Every year, the South African Pagan Rights Alliance Touchstone Advocacy runs a 30 day campaign to end “witch-hunts” and the accusations of “witchcraft” in South Africa. This year,
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Advocacy against witch-hunts, Media

Refugees of witch-hunts in South Africa

Sunday Times interview on refugees of witch-hunts. Helena, the desolate exile, has become known as the ‘place of witches’Trauma never dies for ‘sorcerers’ cast out of their homes14 April 2019 | by Jeff WicksIn the village of Helena – a forgotten dumping
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Advocacy against witch-hunts, Media

Review of the Witchcraft Suppression Act

Sunday Times interview on the review of the Witchcraft Suppression Act. The decriminalisation of ‘harmless witchcraft’ to be realised in the near future?14 April 2019 | By Sipokazi FokaziSunday Times.

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/

Press Releases 2019

Pagan Conference of Religion and Regulation

Download a copy of the Pagan Conference on Religion and Regulation hosted by SAPRA and the South African Pagan Council on Human Rights Day 21 March 2019.

Press Releases 2019

SAPRA lodges complaint against CRL Rights Commission with COGTA

The South African Pagan Rights Alliance has lodged the following complaint against the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs. – The Honourable Mr
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Your Rights

Religious discrimination in the workplace

It is unlawful for an employer to prevent employees from exercising their personal religious beliefs, and it is unlawful for employers to obligate employees or pupils to embrace a faith that is not theirs. An employer may not victimise an employee because
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Press Releases 2018, Your Rights

Christian hate speech and defamation: Witchcamp 2018

Any discussion on or about religion in South Africa must begin with an acknowledgement of an absolute rule – all religions are to be regarded as equal before the law! This Constitutional rule was most recently reiterated in 2017, when the South
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Press Releases 2018

SAPRA supports the Civil Union Amendment Bill

In February 2008, the South African Pagan Rights Alliance was designated by the Department of Home Affairs as a religious organisation in terms of section 5 (1) and (2) of the Civil Union Act (Act 17 of 2006), and appoints its own
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Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2018

Witchcraft accusations and the Media

A consideration of the ethical responsibility of journalists when reporting on accusations of witchcraft in South Africa. Download a free .pdf copy Accusations of witchcraft are not protected under the constitutional rights to freedom of religion, belief and opinion, or expression. An
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Press Releases 2018, Your Rights

Free speech? Freedom of expression, and its limitations

International discussions and debates on the merits of limitless (free) speech, and whether or not speech that incites harm should be protected or banned from social media, is currently trending on social and corporate media sites. In South Africa, chapter 2 section
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Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2018, Remember their Names

Witchcraft accusations require SAPS intervention

SAPRA frequently receives e-mails from concerned individuals alleging that their mother, or family member, has been accused of witchcraft, by members of their community. It is important to remember that accusations of witchcraft are almost never based on evidence, and invariably lead
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Press Releases 2018

SAPRA Annual General Meeting 2018

South African Pagan Rights AllianceAnnual General Meeting 28 April 2018 Download AGM Agenda AGENDA IntroductionFollow this annual general meeting at https://www.facebook.com/events/161890641047771/ Director’s Report Matters Arising from AGM 2017 Chief Executive Officer’s Report CRL Rights Commission proposal on regulation of religion Advocacy against witch-hunts
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Press Releases 2018

Hate Speech Bill: Objection to religious exemption amendment

An amendment to the ‘Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill‘, called a ‘religious exemption’ clause (in s3(2)(d) of the Bill), will allow “the bona fide interpretation and proselytising or espousing of any religious tenet, belief, teaching, doctrine or
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Press Releases 2018

Repeal of section 6 of the Civil Union Act

Speaker of the National Assembly New Assembly Building, Parliament Street, Cape Town P O Box 15, Cape Town 8000 E-mail: speaker@parliament.gov.za cc: cdudley@parliament.gov.za Notice 96 of 2018 – Civil Union Amendment Bill, 2018
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Press Releases 2018

Proposal to regulate religion opposed by COGTA

The proposal by the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural‚ Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL Rights Commission) to license and regulate religion, religious organisation and leaders, has not been endorsed by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance
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Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2017

OHCHR Experts propose action to end accusations of witchcraft and witch-hunts

The United Nations Human Rights Council hosted the very first two day workshop on witchcraft-related human rights violations in Geneva, Switzerland, on 21 and 22 September. The workshop brought together over a hundred U.N. experts, academics and members of civil society from
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Advocacy against witch-hunts

OHCHR – experts propose action on witch-hunts

The United Nations Human Rights Council hosted the very first two day workshop on witchcraft-related human rights violations in Geneva, Switzerland, on 21 and 22 September. The South African Pagan Rights Alliance was invited to attend this event. The workshop brought together over
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Press Releases 2017

CRL Commission ignores minorities

In a recently published article – Pagans and Christians oppose CRL commission’s ‘state capture’ of religion – CRL Commission chairperson Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva is reported to have stated: “The participants in the hearings were part of a random sample. Only religions which were broadly represented
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Your Rights

Defamation and crimin injuria

Defamation Defamation is defined as “any unlawful, intentional false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person’s reputation; decreases the respect, regard, or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against a
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Press Releases 2017, Your Rights

Religion and education: what the OGOD judgement means

On June 28 the South Gauteng High Court delivered its long anticipated judgement on religion and education in public schools. In Organisasie vir Godsdienste-Onderrig en Demokrasie v Laerskool Randhart and Others, Judge van der Linde, affirmed the principles of religious diversity and
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Press Releases 2017, Your Rights

Witchcraft is a constitutionally protected religion in South Africa

Recently published articles concerning the revision of Canada’s Criminal Code on the prohibition of Witchcraft in that country has elicited numerous calls by South African Witches to legalise Witchcraft in South Africa. Many Pagans and Witches remain under the impression that the
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Press Releases 2017

SAPRA Report: South African Pagan Council 2017 Annual General Meeting

South African Pagan Council 2017 Annual General MeetingReport by the South African Pagan Rights Alliance (SAPRA)(SAPRA is an affiliated member of the Pagan Council) 2017 SAPRA Director’s Report Over the last 23 years, SAPRA has demonstrated its capacity and proficiency in human
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Your Rights

Religious observances at state institutions

Equitable and voluntary religious observances at state institutions Some Pagans have, whilst visiting public clinics, felt obligated to endure Christian prayer services conducted by staff members of the clinic. Some consider interrupting these services as disrespectful to the rights of Christian patients,
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Advocacy against witch-hunts, Press Releases 2017

2017 Advocacy against witchcraft accusations and witch-hunts

. Advocacy against human rights abuses committed as a result of accusations of witchcraft and violent witch-hunts The ’30 days of advocacy against witch-hunts campaign’ was launched in March 2008 under the banner of Touchstone Advocacy, in response to ongoing accusations of witchcraft and
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Advocacy against witch-hunts

UNHCR, UNICEF & SA CRL Rights Commission condemn witch-hunts

In January 2009 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released a working report on human rights abuses committed as a result of witchcraft accusations. “An extensive literature review of journal articles, UNHCR internal documents and newspapers has shown that
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Advocacy against witch-hunts

South African Police Services approach to witch-hunts problematic

The investigation of accusations of witchcraft and witch-hunts falls under the ambit of the Occult-related Crime Unit, until fairly recently, a poorly constituted special branch of the South African Police Services staffed by evangelical Christians who believe that ‘witchcraft’ constitutes evidence
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Advocacy against witch-hunts

Refugees of witchcraft accusation and Traditional Courts

South Africa faces a growing refugee crisis as victims of witchcraft accusation who either survive assault or are expelled from their communities by community leaders, traditional leaders and traditional healers, after being tried in traditional courts and found guilty through divination,
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Advocacy against witch-hunts

Contemporary witch-hunts in South Africa

Witch-hunts are an internationally recognised epidemic throughout Africa. Although witch-hunts have historically been viewed as gender specific, with a large percentage of victims still identified as elderly and solitary women, a 2009 report by Yaseen Ally entitled Witch Hunts In Modern South
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