Party manifestos give LGBTQIA+ community short thrift, say activists amid fears rights may be reversed

Diego Jacobs died in the arms of a friend because his alleged killer took exception to his sexuality.

He was stabbed to death in the early hours of 3 February, while walking to his home in Delft, in the Western Cape, allegedly by a former neighbour who attacked  Jacobs because he was gay. The attack sent shockwaves through the gay community in an African country that prides itself on a Constitution that offers protection to members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

“If they (politicians) were taking the queer community into consideration, none of this would be happening,” says Mmakola, the treasurer general of the SA Queer Movement.

Over the last six to seven years, Mpho Buntse, director of advocacy group Queer Quantity, puts the number of members of the LGBTQIA+ community murdered in hate crimes at close to 50.

Other crimes have also occurred, including incidents of ‘conversion therapy’ — the practice of attempting to change a person’s sexual orientation. Sometimes this occurs in churches, or behind the closed doors of family homes.

“In most of the cases when queer community members report to the police, they are not taken seriously,” says Mmakola.

Protection of LGBTQIA+ rights 

In 30 years of democracy, South Africa has done much to protect the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.

South Africa is a country where same-sex marriages are permitted and Chapter 9 of the country’s Constitution prohibits discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community.

But as the 2024 election looms, some within the community fear that these hard-fought liberties could be in jeopardy.

“People are scared for the first time in the history of South Africa, because a political party that is five months old has stood up and said that they will make sure that they will reverse amongst, other things, same-sex marriages,” says Buntse, referring to the MK party.

It was at an MK gathering in Pietermaritzburg in January that former president Jacob Zuma told the crowd he had been approached by a traditional leader who had raised concerns about same-sex laws.

It was reported Zuma told the gathered crowd that, “If we win as a party we would change the repressive laws which are anti-democratic”, referring to laws that protect LGBTQIA+ communities.

And there have been other recent anti-LGBTQIA+ utterances on the election trail.

Colleen Makhubele, of the South African Rainbow Alliance said she was against the promotion of gay rights at schools.

Political consciousness

When it comes to LGBTQIA+ issues, few political parties go into much detail in their manifestos.

However, the manifesto with the most detail when it comes to the LGBTQIA+ community belongs to the EFF.

Read more in Daily Maverick: 2024 elections hub

This wide-ranging document says that the EFF would prioritise the economic empowerment of the LGBTIQA+ community while also raising awareness of their needs through developing programmes on “gender and sexual diversity”.

The manifesto also says that an EFF government will monitor and address hate crimes and introduce harsher sentences for these crimes.

The party says it will allow non-binary people to be legally recognised by introducing ‘X’ gender markers in official documents. If the EFF won the elections, according to their manifesto, they will introduce training to health and social professional staff on LGBTQIA+ identities.

The manifesto goes on to say that they will amend sex description laws and ensure that LGBTQIA+ people have equal access to public services and reproductive and fertility services.

Other plans by the EFF include providing gender-neutral toilets, better training of police and more resources to support LGBTQIA+ crime survivors.

The ANC in their manifesto said they would advance the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community over the next five years. They also called on the LGBTQIA+ community to “join us to defend and advance our freedom, so that together we can do more as active citizens of our beloved South Africa”.

LGBTIQA+ community member Nicole Swannepool attends the annual Gay Pride march in Johannesburg, South Africa. 29 October 2022. With the exception of South Africa, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in Africa are very poor compared to other areas of the world. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Kim Ludbrook)

Perhaps it was the detail in the EFF’s manifesto that resulted in an impressive showing in a recent survey asking queer people who they would vote for next week.

The survey by advocacy group Queer Quantity found that 41% said that they would vote for the ANC in the up-and-coming election. The official opposition in this survey turned out to be the EFF with 25% of the vote, with the DA only getting 6.5%. While the survey relied on a small survey of only 150 participants, Buntse did say that the results were indicative of previous elections.

Big Queer Election Debate

Last Friday, on the same day as the release of the survey results, Queer Quantity also held the Big Queer Election Debate in Tshwane, which was attended by various political parties and stakeholders.

In attendance were Rise Mzansi, UDM and the DA. The ANC and the EFF were no-shows.

For Buntse, the debate provided more information about the stance of many political parties regarding the LGBTQIA+ community.

“They are mum in their manifestos so what are their future plans with regards to incorporating issues of LGBTQIA+? Because, there are mounting fears that many of the advances made by the LGBTQIA+ might be reversed,” Buntse says.

“What we saw was that Rise Mzansi really spoke to the LGBTQIA+ community in the debate when they said that there is a Constitution that works, but it does not work for the LGBTQIA+ community in full. There needs to be, they said, a renewed sense of ensuring that queer people are [included] so they can be part and parcel of the community,” says Buntse.

LGBTQIA+ activists argue that there are issues that haven’t made it into manifestos and are not being debated about by the various parties. One of such issue is the problem of ‘conversion therapy’.

“Legislators need to prioritise the issue of banning conversion practices. Across many of our communities, in our households no one sees it as a problem because there is nothing in the law that says it is wrong for a parent to take a child to conversion therapy,” says Buntse.

But for many in the queer community, they simply want their voices heard and not be told by politicians what their issues are.

“We have taken a stance that no one should talk about us without us. Because we believe that we are more than capable in making sure that our democracy is not reversed and we would like to contribute positively to our policymaking and the Constitution of the country,” says Calvin Nkosi, the president and founder of the South African Queer Movement.

“We want a political party that will first consult with us when they make policy.”

But ultimately, says Nkosi, political parties should not ignore the power of the pink vote in South Africa. There are estimates that the  LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa could be two million strong.

“When you look at the last national elections, the party that took third position was the EFF, and they had just below two million votes. So if the LGBTIQA+ community were to call in numbers and start voting, we could take third or fourth place in government,” says Nkosi. DM

This reporting is supported through a Media Monitoring Africa fellowship.