Press Release
ANIMAL RIGHTS AFRICA GOES TO HIGH COURT OVER UKWESHWAMA RITUAL
22 November 2009
Animal Rights Africa (ARA) will be going to the High Court in Pietermaritzburg on the 24th November 2009 to try and end the extremely cruel Ukweshwama ritual, which is due to take place on the 5th December in at Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal, during the First Fruits Festival. Said ARA spokesperson Michele Pickover, "It physically pains us and is an affront to our dignity that an animal is made to suffer in such an overtly cruel and protracted way. "
ARA has exhausted all other remedies to meet with and discuss the issue with the parties concerned, to no avail [1]. ARA has instructed Tina Costas, an environmental lawyer at Garlicke and Bousfield to act on ARA's behalf. Advocate Michael Smithers SC, has prepared the papers and will move the application at the High Court on Tuesday. ARA has cited as Respondents: King Goodwill Zwelenthini, the national Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the KZN MEC for Local Government, Housing and Traditional Affairs, the Premier of KZN and the national Minister of Police.
The Ukweshwama ritual does nothing to strengthen nation building, social cohesion or peace. During this cruel ritual a group of men torture and kill a bull with their bare hands. The bull suffers tremendously. According to an eyewitness description of the killing, "For 40 minutes, dozens trampled the bellowing, groaning bull, wrenched its head around by the horns to try to break its neck, pulled its tongue out, stuffed sand in its mouth and even tried to tie its penis in a knot. Gleaming with sweat, they raised their arms in triumph and sang when the bull finally succumbed." [2]
In contrast, ARA is working for Inclusive justice, peace, promoting positive values and ending violence. "We defend innocent victims and speak on their behalf. It is unfathomable that given our experience of oppression and exploitation in South Africa that those who had previously been innocent sufferers would inflict such terrible pain on an even more innocent victim", said Pickover.
ARA is concerned that the ritual will also desensitise participants and on-lookers. Violence begets violence and violence to animals and violence to fellow human beings is interlinked. There is solid scientific evidence of a definite link between violence to animals and violence perpetrated against people.
ARA's action is not about cultural intolerance or racial chauvinism as has been stated by supporters of the ukweshwama practice. Ukweshwama has no place in a democratic South Africa and cannot be condoned. We also have the support of animal welfare groups and organisations all over Africa and at Pan-African conference on animal welfare, held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 21- 24 September 2009, delegates signed a petition calling on the South African Parliament to halt, with immediate effect, the ukweshwama ritual. According to Mr Josphat Ngonyo, the Director of the Africa Network for Animal Welfare, "The cruelty meted out to these animals is barbaric, inhumane and retrogressive. It is conducted in the name of 'culture' but culture of this nature needs to be abandoned as swiftly as the culture of female circumcision…..This is not the face of Africa that will see us contributing to global discourse as competent and dignified participants."
According to Ndela Ntshangase, an expert in African religious practices, Ukweshwama is performed to ensure that the Zulu nation has a strong army to defend the king's subjects. South Africa is not at war. There is no Zulu army only one national military force: all South Africans - Zulus and non-Zulus alike - are protected by the SANDF and the SAPS, (the Zulu king himself is protected by VIP Bodyguards provided by the national government) via tax-payers money, and they have other, more legitimate ways, overseen by legislation, regulation and policy of ensuring that they are competent and effective.
Zulu people are not a homogeneous grouping and many would not endorse this kind of torture; those that perform the Ukweshwama ritual do not represent all Zulus. Zulu identity and culture is not solely defined by the ritual and by not practising, rejecting or disassociating oneself from it, does not make a Zulu not a Zulu.
There is nothing stopping the practice from embracing change. Traditions and cultural practices by their very nature are fluid, dynamic and ever evolving. Crucially, tradition is not an excuse for cruelty, and many societies have ended or are working to end "traditional" practices that cause animals or humans to suffer, such as slavery, human-trafficking, cannibalism, infanticide, female circumcision, foot-binding, bullfighting and fox hunting.
As commentator Fred Khumalo has aptly pointed out, "culture is about taking the beautiful, spiritually fulfilling, inspiring manifestation of life, as lived by our ancestors, and striving to improve these instead of reliving the hurtful, nonsensical aspects of life in the past."
Contact :
Steve Smit (Durban) 082 659 4711
Michele Pickover (Johannesburg) 082 253 2124
E.mail :
[1] A copy of the lawyer’s letter that was sent out at the beginning of November is available on request.
[2] From ANC Daily Press Briefings http://70.84.171.10/~etools/newsbrief/1995/news1211 Monday 11 December 1995.
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