Can your rules remain silent when it comes to slaughtering?
21 July 2022 | Nicole Tavares
When updating conduct rules of a body corporate, it is guaranteed that someone is going to bring up the topic of ritual slaughtering. Agree with it or not, as we know in South Africa, slaughtering, for a cultural or religious purpose, cannot be prohibited in terms of the Constitution of South Africa.
What does this mean for communal living? As mentioned above, one cannot prohibit slaughtering. However in terms of the conduct rules, one can impose certain reasonable conditions that must be followed in order to have everyone’s rights, beliefs and views protected when it comes to slaughtering.
As per the latest Practice Directive issued by the Community Schemes Ombud Service (“the CSOS”), when adding, updating and/or amending your schemes rules, the CSOS will not approve the new, or amended conduct rules, unless a conduct rule dealing with cultural and/or religious slaughtering is specifically included.
However, what happens if the body corporate does not want to set out any conditions and/or even mention slaughtering in their conduct rules?
Above is the exact question I asked Johlene Wassermann, the Manager of Governance at the CSOS, at a recent webinar, held by National Association of Managing Agents (“NAMA”) in June 2022. The answer that Johlene provided was that if a scheme is adding, updating and/or amending their conduct rules, the new or amended set of conduct rules MUST allow and provide for ritual slaughtering – it’s non-negotiable.
I’m not entirely sure I agree with this comment based on the following:
The Prescribed Conduct Rules (“the PCRs”) make no mention of slaughtering, and if your scheme has not amended any of their conduct rules, the PCRs automatically apply. Which leads me to a follow up question, perhaps the one I should have asked at the webinar, if your scheme is not updating their rules – are the CSOS going to force them to do so simply to add a slaughtering rule?
If your scheme is wanting to update a wheel-clamping rule for example, why should the members be forced to add, discuss and vote on a slaughtering rule?
Slaughtering is a constitutional right, and according to the hierarchy of legislation and rules, the Constitution will always trump conduct rules, so is it really necessary to insert this rule into the conduct rules?
This further begs the question, why are the CSOS so adamant when it comes to this particular rule?
Don’t get me wrong, do we suggest that our clients include a slaughtering rule permitting slaughtering, for a cultural or religious purpose, in a section and/or exclusive use area? 100% yes, every time.
Do we suggest that the conduct rules set out a procedure in order for an owner, occupier and/or tenant to undertake a cultural or religious slaughter? 100% yes, every time.
Do we mind the body corporate saying owners, occupiers and/or tenants are not permitted to slaughter animals on the common property? Absolutely not! This is something that is up to the members of the scheme to decide depending on the nature and set up of the scheme.
It is also worth considering that should the conduct rules make no mention of it, owners, occupiers and/or tenants will still be permitted to undertake slaughtering in the scheme, just with no conduct rule regulating them to do so. Do we still think that a body corporate should be allowed to remain silent in light of this? 100%!
We would love to hear your thoughts on the matter, please leave them in the comment section below. If you or your scheme needs any help drafting the above rules, please contact us at TVDM Consultants on info@tvdmconsultants.com or 061 536 3138.
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