Jon Qwelane is to become South Africa's ambassador to Uganda, according to Sunday newspaper reports of 17 January. Remember Qwelane published an article in 2008 with a picture of a man marrying a goat in which he praised Mugabe's homophobia and called for changes to our constitution to prevent same sex marriages. No doubt he also subscribes to the dangerous myth that homosexuality is un-African, an aberration that came to the continent with colonialism.
Uganda, as you may have read in the October issue of Exit (issue 230 p28, full text available on www.exit.co.za), on Facebook or on your choice of news website, is the country where an MP is trying to introduce an Anti-Homosexuality law (the Bahati Bill takes it's name from said MP) which would introduce life sentences or the death penalty for homosexuals, and make anyone who doesn't report the “offence” a criminal courting a jail sentence. (So if your grandmother knows you're gay and doesn't report you, she could go to jail for years).
And there we were hoping someone of significance in the South African government (the President? The Minister of Justice?) would take a stand against the Anti-Homosexuality law proposed in Uganda, and the parading of a gay couple in handcuffs in Malawi. Say that it violates human rights. Since the Equality clause in our Constitution protects against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation one would think it would be part of our foreign policy to promote such provisions abroad. Instead we read that Qwelane is to become our ambassador to gay-hating Uganda! Is this a calculated gesture to say, “Up yours!” Or does our government think that our most notorious homophobe will blend in well in Uganda?
For Ugandan LGBTs there is a glimmer of hope in recent reports that their president Yoweri Museveni has cautioned those advocating for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill to “go slow” as the matter is a sensitive foreign policy issue. He has come under pressure from US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, the British and Canadian Prime Ministers, and many others. The European Parliament has taken a stand against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
These important world figures are reacting at least in part to demonstrations, petitions and other forms of activism by their own LGBT communities. Peter Tatchell of Britain's Outrage has been prominent in lobbying against the Ugandan bill.
In South Africa, where “correctional” rape and even murder of black lesbians takes place, our LGBT organisations have yet to take the lead on this issue. Cape Town Pride has said (see p3) it will “be creating awareness of LGBTI issues and support and concern for all LGBTI communities fighting for equality worldwide, especially in the context of Africa” so maybe we should look out for an anti-Uganda float in Adderley Street. Let's hope that their statement will not be yet another mouthing of important principles that rests merely at the level of rhetoric. I hope that gay organisations like the Equality Project will fiercely lobby ministers and comrades. Maybe Joburg Pride will wake up to the fact that it is staging a political event and not just a party. But given their sad sell-out last year, this might be a hope too far. Altogether better, and certainly long before Spring, we might have to head for the Union Buildings to protest Qwelane's appointment. Via the Ugandan embassy....