CRL Commission ignores Pagans right to public holidays?
Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities
Chairperson: Rev. Dr Wesley Madonda Mabuza
Deputy Chairperson: Mrs Julia Mabale
Chief Executive Officer: Adv. Pheagane Solomon Moreroa
Dear Sir / Madam
South African Pagan communities are deeply upset at the apparently deliberate exclusion of Paganism from the CRL Rights Commission’s ‘RECOMMENDATIONS: PUBLIC HOLIDAYS vs RELIGIOUS/CULTURAL HOLYDAYS’ [0]
[0] ‘RECOMMENDATIONS: PUBLIC HOLIDAYS vs RELIGIOUS/CULTURAL HOLYDAYS’
http://www.crlcommission.org.za/icr_docs/public_holidays_recomendations.pdf
As both a cooperating partner with the CRL RC on a number of current matters, and as an interested and affected organization representing South African Paganism, the South African Pagan Rights Alliance submitted a formal comment on this matter to the CRL RC on 11 June 2012.
That submission is attached hereto as Appendix A. Together with evidence of such an e-mail submission to the following e-mail addresses: chairperson@crlcommission.org.za , ceo@crlcommission.org.za , sipho@crlcommission.org.za
The CRL RC’s mention of only Christianity, African Traditional Religion, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Bahai, Rastafarism and Buddhism, and the deliberate exclusion of Paganism, constitutes a grievous error in judgement; one that places our current standing with the CRL Rights Commission, both as an organization and as representatives of a visible religious minority, in serious question.
This Alliance strongly objects to the way in which this religious minority is currently being marginalised by the CRL RC and must herewith demand that this matter be resolved through 1) the immediate inclusion of Paganism as a religious minority to said documentation, and 2) formal acknowledgement of receipt of past and subsequent concerns raised by Pagans and this Alliance in response to said suggested recommendation’s.
Appendix A.
SAPRA supports CRLRC’s review of Christian religious public holidays
11 June 2012
SAPRA Press Release: http://www.paganrightsalliance.org/public-holidays/ [dated 11 June 2012]
Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities
The recent decision by the CRL Rights Commission to review religious public holidays is welcomed by this Alliance.
In a 2007 discussion document entitled ‘The RDP of the Soul’ [1] the ANC’s Commission for Religious Affairs (CRA) urged that the multi- religious nature of South Africa be recognised and has proposed that Christmas and Easter, Eid ul Fitr, Diwali and Yom Kippur be celebrated as Public Holidays.
The document, a review and analysis of the Liberation struggle, attempted to encourage the reconstruction and development of the nation’s spirit, and to “devise policies and set out comprehensive programmes for secular transformation by spiritual values… wherever people are learning to transform human community together.”It reaffirms that unity of the spirit “is the RDP of the soul”, and calls on all religions to “agree on the great spiritual truths which drive humanity”, and to “hold the same values in common whether it is love, joy, or peace; honesty, justice or integrity; generosity, responsibility or loyalty”.
The ANC’s proposal was a tangible realization of the already constitutionally enshrined guarantee to equality of religion in South Africa, and it fulfills the aspiration of the ANC’s Freedom Charter [2], declared at the ‘Congress of the People’ in Kliptown, South Africa on 26 June 1955, “that only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief”.
The then Commission’s proposal to increase the number of religious Public Holidays was welcomed by members of diverse religious groups. It was especially welcomed by Pagans lobbying for the transformation of the existing Public Holiday calendar in which the only two religious public holidays, Christmas and Easter, are Christian. [3]
The South African Pagan Rights Alliance is of the opinion that South African Pagans should also be afforded the same recognition with the addition of Pagan religious holidays to the official Public Holiday calendar.
SAPRA would argue that the ANC CRA’s 2007 proposal to “recognise the multi-religious nature of our society and Constitution” can not be achieved by dismissing as irrelevent the request of smaller religious minorities for equal recognition.
We hold that the rights to freedom and equality of religion enshrined in the Bill of Rights are not apportioned on the basis of numerical adherence, but aught to be granted to all religious expressions equally, without favouritism or bias.
References:
[1] The RDP of the Soul
http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=2373
[2] Freedom Charter
http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?id=72
[3] Public Holidays Act, No. 36 of 1994
http://www.info.gov.za/acts/1994/a36-94.pdf
Evidence of original e-mail submission withheld from web publication.