Speaker, the PAC is gravely concerned about the barbaric killing of innocent people who are accused of witchcraft. Most of the victims are rural, poverty-stricken old women. In August this year, 85-year-old Babusiba and her four grandchildren, the youngest aged five years, were brutally hacked to death in the Transkei.
Our society is guilty of betraying the victims of witch-hunts. In a killing fuelled by racism, society rightly condemns both the act of killing and the ideology of racism. However, when the so-called witches are butchered, society slams the killing only.
We never go far enough and denounce the antiquated ideology of witchcraft, thus implicitly arming the criminals - at least with the ammunition of superstition.
The rainy season is upon us. A lot of rural old women are going to be killed for using lightning to settle scores with their enemies.
Here are the striking facts about lightning: Within millionths of a second the temperature of lightning may reach almost five times that of the sun's surface. It is sheer madness to accuse an old granny of generating such intense heat.
Witch-hunts are a form of self-hate. An indigenous African seen among a troop of baboons is labelled a witch. A white person in a similar situation is hailed as a researcher. Africans always think badly of themselves. Poverty eradication and mass education can go a long way towards sparing the lives of our elderly people and their grandchildren. [Time expired.]