Opposition To The Bill
In July 2007 members of organizations representing Pagans and traditional healers met with officials of the Mpumalanga Provincial Government's Department of Local Government and Housing to discuss their concerns about the Bill from very different cultural viewpoints.
Pagans who self-identify as Witches, albeit in a contemporary Western sense, objected to the unconstitutional suppression of their religious beliefs and practices and the negative stereotype of witchcraft in the Bill:
"Witchcraft" means the secret use of muti, zombies, spells, spirits, magic powders, water, mixtures, etc, by any person with the purpose of causing harm, damage, sickness to others or their property. —Draft Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill 2007Traditional healers objected to an inyanga, a local term for a traditional healer, and muti, a local term for medicine, being associated with harmful practices and traditional healers effectively being labelled as witches, the witch term having strong negative connotations in an Afrocentric context:
"Inyanga" means a person who uses muti to cause harm, damage, suffering, bad luck, cure diseases, protect from evil spirits and uses mixtures shells, coins, bones,etc. to foretell the future of people, identify witches, perform spells for good and or evil purposes. —Draft Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill 2007 "Muti" means any mixture of herbs, water, wollen cufs etc, used by wizards, igedla, inyanga, African Churches, Foreign traditional Healers, etc for the purposes of curing deseases, helping others who come to consult to them for whatever purposes and including causing harm to others or their properties. —Draft Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill 2007Read more about this topic: Mpumalanga Witchcraft Suppression Bill
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