EDITORIAL: Gay Ugandans face terrible injustice. Where is SA’s voice?

SA has a long and shameful record of failing to defend human rights abuses on the international stage. From former president Thabo Mbeki’s refusal to condemn Zimbabwe’s torture and unlawful detention of political dissidents to the present administration’s embarrassing flimflammery on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a series of ANC-led governments has opted for quiet diplomacy over doing the right thing.

So, it is hardly surprising that SA has failed to take a stand on the injustice confronting gay Ugandans after its parliament passed one of the world’s most draconian anti-homosexuality acts last week. The legislation, which is widely expected to be signed into law by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, makes it a crime for anyone to identify as being gay, punishes gay sex with life imprisonment, and introduces the offence of “promoting” homosexuality, a term so broad it threatens journalists, nongovernment organisations, lawyers and medical professionals with jail terms of up 20 years for simply doing their jobs.

The Ugandan parliament’s move against the LGBTQ community has rightly been described by the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, as a deeply disturbing development that renders lesbian, gay and bisexual people criminals for simply being who they are.  The legislation has also been slammed by international agencies such as the World Health Organisation and Unaids, who warn that criminalising homosexuality will set back Uganda’s fight against HIV because it will make it more difficult to work with key population groups, such as men who have sex with men.

Homophobia is a fact of life in Uganda, where same sex acts have been criminalised since the British colonial era. But in recent years, fuelled by the American evangelical right, Ugandan religious leaders and politicians have intensified their campaign of harassment and persecution against LGBTQ people. The new antihomosexuality act takes that discrimination to new depths. Gay people under 18 are threatened with the chilling prospect of up to three years in prison for “rehabilitation”, landlords face prison sentences for letting properties to homosexuals, and people convicted of “aggravated homosexuality”, which includes anyone having same-sex relations with someone with a disability or HIV may face the death penalty.

Tragically, Uganda is not alone in its institutionalised prejudice. More than two dozen African countries have made it a crime to be gay, often casting homosexuality as a corrupting Western import, when of course it is nothing of the sort. A handful of African nations such as Botswana, Angola, Mozambique and Gabon have recently scrapped laws criminalising homosexuality, but far too many others, including Kenya, Cameroon, and Nigeria have stepped up the persecution.

SA stands out as a beacon of tolerance in Africa, as it was the first country in the world to include in our constitution the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, thereby guaranteeing equal rights for gay people. Others have since followed. These values were explicitly enshrined in the constitution because of the injustices perpetrated against gay people by the apartheid state.

That these values are not translated into SA’s foreign policy today is a sad reflection on the people who hold leadership positions in government.

International relations & co-operation minister Naledi Pandor had the backbone to condemn the Taliban’s systematic discrimination of Afghan women and has consistently spoken out against its ban on educating girls. What a pity she cannot find the courage to do the same for gay Ugandans.