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Delicate issue

UKWESHAMA,the ritual involving the killing of a bull with bare hands, has come and gone. And the sun did not fall from the sky.

UKWESHAMA,the ritual involving the killing of a bull with bare hands, has come and gone. And the sun did not fall from the sky.

The furore over it highlighted how trivialising the culture of a people can evoke emotive responses that could easily bedevil the fragile rainbow nation.

What the animal activists overlooked is that the ritual is held sacred by the Zulu people.

Opposing it was indeed tantamount to keeping Roman Catholics from receiving communion, as pointed out by a learned judge.

For the practitioners of the ritual it was about celebrating the first fruits ceremony and praying for the Zulu king's wellbeing.

Let this experience teach all South Africans to treatsensitive issues with circumspection.

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