{"id":11519,"date":"2012-06-15T23:23:56","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T21:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/witchcraft-alleged-in-s-africa-labour-turf-war\/"},"modified":"2012-06-15T23:23:56","modified_gmt":"2012-06-15T21:23:56","slug":"witchcraft-alleged-in-s-africa-labour-turf-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/witchcraft-alleged-in-s-africa-labour-turf-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Witchcraft alleged in S.Africa labour turf war"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Ed Stoddard<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG, June 15<\/span> (Reuters) – South Africa’s top
\nmineworkers union has accused a rival of using witchcraft to
\nboost recruiting, an allegation taken seriously among the rank
\nand file in a country where traditional spiritual beliefs are
\nwidely held.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has been
\nlocked in a violent battle for membership with the upstart
\nAssociation of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) at the
\nworld’s largest platinum mine, run by Impala Platinum.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“One of the tools which is used strongly is ‘muti’,” NUM
\nGeneral Secretary Frans Baleni told journalists on Thursday
\nnight, referring to traditional medicines that can be made from
\na range of ingredients including animal or human body parts.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Baleni said NUM’s members believed that AMCU had a “very
\nstrong ‘sangoma’,” or witch doctor.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“One of the myths is that if you don’t toe the line,
\nespecially if you are a man, if you defy them you might have
\nbedroom problems at home,” he said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sangomas are widely respected by South Africans of all walks
\nof life, including business leaders and politicians.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Baleni later told Reuters it was an issue that was not being
\ntaken lightly because many workers believed in such things.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We are taking it seriously as part of the tactics of this
\nunion as our members are telling us about the use of sangomas
\nand muti,” Baleni said.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG, June 15 (Reuters) – South Africa’s top mineworkers union has accused a rival of using witchcraft to boost recruiting, an allegation taken seriously among the rank and file in a country where traditional spiritual beliefs are widely held. South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has been locked in a violent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}