In March 2023 the Pan-African Parliament released its “Guidelines on Accusations of witchcraft and ritual attacks: towards eliminating harmful practices and other human rights violations” at the joint sittings of the Committee on Gender, Youth, Family and People with Disability, the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Affairs, and the Committee on Education, Culture, Tourism, and Human Resources at the PAP headquarters in Midrand, South Africa.
These articles relate to the early events of the Krugersdorp murder saga.
SAPRA and others in the community were already skeptical when new cases labeled in the media as “occult” and “satanic crimes” appeared. History has proven that our skepticism had merit. Our hypothesis that it is Christian anti-Satanism and anti-Occult hysteria and propaganda fueling cases also proved to be correct. Legend trippers enact the “Christian myth of Satanism” and frequently have no real knowledge on the occult or Satanism.
In fact, the focus on identifying Satanists involved with the crime and the involvement of the Occult Related Crimes/Harmful Religious Practices Unit and “Colonel X” caused severe delays as they chased red herrings in their religious quest to fight the devil.
SAPRA and others in the community were already skeptical when new cases labeled in the media as “occult” and “satanic crimes” appeared. History has proven that our skepticism had merit. Our hypothesis that it is Christian anti-Satanism and anti-Occult hysteria and propaganda fueling cases also proved to be correct. Legend trippers enact the “Christian myth of Satanism” and frequently have no real knowledge on the occult or Satanism.
Despite obvious theological divergence between Paganism and Satanism, both religious movements find common ground within the Occult and Occultism. The Department of Education’s intention to single out so-called “occultism” or “occult practices” as harmful constitutes a very real threat to the religious freedoms guaranteed for children who may choose, or who may already have chosen, to explore or become adherents of Pagan Witchcraft or Satanism, or who have or do show any inclination or fascination with the Occult or Occultism.
We would like to thank formal SAPRA members, and international supporters, for their unwavering support for this campaign to end witch-hunts in South Africa. Thank you. We note that there have been no reports of witch-hunts in our country since 2021. We will continue to closely monitor published news reports to ensure that accusations of witchcraft never ever lead to witch-hunts in South Africa again.
In June 2022 the South African Law Reform Commission confirmed its recommendation for the repeal of the Witchcraft Suppression Act.
This Alliance herewith submits further comment in objection to the proposed draft “Prohibition of Harmful Practices and Unlawful Accusations of Harmful Witchcraft Practices Bill”.
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
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.
The consideration of a belief in “witchcraft” as a mitigating factor in sentencing is wholly inappropriate as this will not discourage further accusations of witchcraft or witch-hunts. The purpose of sentencing must be deterrence. Our courts must not lend credence to the perpetrators unproveable “beliefs” that motivated violence against the victim.
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.