A more tolerant society

SOUTH Africa will not be the same again. Life will certainly become more tolerable as intolerance will not be tolerated once the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill 2016 is passed.

South Africans from all racial and religious groups will be afforded legal protection.

This bill will heal and help build a South Africa at peace with itself and at peace with the rest of the world.

A progressive and prosperous society will rise from the ashes of a painful past.

Racial and religious hate crimes and hate speeches, institutionalised by the oppressive apartheid regime are still rampant, fanning the flames of friction and fragmentation.

In pursuance, the South African Hindu Dharma Sabha in its recent comprehensive submission to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, inter alia, proposed substantive amendments through insertions to enhance the stringency of the draft provisions. For example: Any person who is threatening, abusive, slanderous, disrespectful or insulting towards another person or group of persons shall be guilty of an offence.

No person shall stir up violence against, trample upon sensitivities, undermine, make wrongful assertions constituted by untruths, distortions and concoctions, or bring into contempt, denigration or ridicule any person or group of persons.

No person shall subject any person or group of persons to unfair discrimination and overt or covert suppression in the quest for domination.

The rich diversity of races, religions and cultures is our greatest asset.

Unfortunately, many myopic people do not appreciate the richness of our pluralistic society.

These “differences” often drive people to commit heinous crimes against those perceived to be different from them on the basis of race, religion, etc.

The bill will sterlingly enhance interreligious harmony, interracial goodwill, tolerance, unity in diversity, peaceful coexistence, social cohesion, nation building and human solidarity.

The South African Hindu Dharma Sabha has opposed the request from Mark Penrith, the chairman of the Baptist Union of Southern Africa in Krugersdorp, that a religious exemption clause be included.

He, as well as pastor Ray McCauley of the multimillionrand Rhema Church, have labelled the draft bill as being “vague”.

It is interesting to note that Christians also recently opposed a wise government move to regulate religious bodies to ensure financial accountability, transparency, etc.

Are pastors who quote selectively from the Bible, worried about the collapse of their get-rich-quick schemes if the new bill is passed?

Professor David Mosoma, the deputy chairperson of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities, recently stated: “For each and every person who does not have employment, the first port of call is to start a church. Churches have become more like business.”

Some poor people have quickly become rich pastors by expanding their flocks and pockets through unscrupulous conversion and fake healing campaigns.

During the inhumane apartheid regime, Christianity reigned supreme and there prevailed a systematic entrenchment of Eurocentric values and ethos and ruthless imposition of “superior” Christian beliefs on others, for example, through Christian national education.

Religious illusions and delusions of grandeur can become deadly-dangerous.

George Bush, former president of the US and a leading Christian, declared: “God told me to invade Iraq.”

He also implied that his “Christian” God told him to lie to the world about Iraq’s alleged hidden weapons of mass destruction.

In our new democratic dispensation, all bona fide religions are accorded equal status, respect and treatment.

Supremacist Christians cannot manipulate the law to their selfish advantage.

Christians are not above the law.

Christians cannot be “exempted” by their beliefs from the laws of the land.

Constitutional right

The overarching legal framework in South Africa, namely the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act No 108 of 1996, guarantees: “Persons belonging to a cultural, religious or linguistic community may not be denied the right, with other members of that community to enjoy their culture, practise their religion and use their language.”

The ground reality is that on a daily basis Christian touts, including pastors and converts, trample upon Hindu religious sensitivities with impunity.

It is a historical fact that there has been a litany of cases pertaining to the perpetration of discrimination, denigration and demonisation of Hindus.

Hindu nurses wearing red dots and thaalis, symbols of marriage, were asked to remove them at local hospitals.

After intervention by the South African Hindu Dharma Sabha, the orders were withdrawn.

Pupil Sonali Pillay was ordered to remove her traditional nose stud.

The order was reversed through a court order.

In the epoch-making case relating to the MEC for Education, KwaZulu-Natal and others v Pillay 2008 (1) SA 474 (CC), Chief Justice Langa ruled that: “Our constitution requires the community to affirm and reasonably accommodate difference, not merely to tolerate it as a last resort.”

He added that people should be encouraged to express their religion and culture. This was to be celebrated, not feared.

In 2001, Dr Irmhild Horn, a lecturer in education at the University of South Africa, stated that she “did not think it insulting to label Hindus as pagans or heathens”.

She had written an article criticising yoga and meditation for “biblical Christians” in the Good News paper.

The truth is that more than a billion people across the world practise meditation as well as yoga, praising it as the most advanced holistic health system in the world.

Indeed, to promote yoga, the UN has declared an International Yoga Day.

It is significant and relevant to note that, as a legal precedent, the ruling ANC together with the official opposition, the DA, have charged a certain Christian person, Johanness David Kriel, with crimen injuria for wrongfully labelling Hindus as “idol worshippers and devil disciples” on Facebook for using fireworks during Diwali celebrations last year on October 30. Fast track to January 31, 2017. The chief executive officer of Northdale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, Buhle Maphanga, allegedly forced an operations manager to remove her sacred murthee (image) of Lord Muruga, a framed picture of Sri Satya Sai Baba and incense sticks from her personal locker, slating them as “voodoo” (witchcraft).

Hindus are furious because January to February is Kavady, a time dedicated to the worship of Lord Muruga.

The South African Hindu Dharma Sabha has sent a strongly-worded letter to the chairperson of the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Religious, Cultural and Linguistic Communities calling for the dismissal of Puhle Maphanga, cognisant of due process.

“God is One. People call Him by various names,” states the Rig Veda, which dates back to 8 000 BC.

“May we look at all with a friendly eye,” says the Yajur Veda.

Human beings can live individually but can survive only collectively.

As the Hindu scriptures proclaim Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the whole world is one family.

Ram Maharaj, a former MPL in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, is president of the South African Hindu

Dharma Sabha