Comments on: GAY GROUPS BACK SA GOV STANCE ON UGANDA

By: Busani Moyo

Busani Moyo — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 20:20:22 +0000

It may be indeed very convenient for South Africans to use their newly acquired quiet diplomacy forgetting that if the whole world had used quite diplomacy when the apartheid government was butchering black people the very same South Africans would have cried foul. We all need to speak very clearly against the kind of Human Rights abuses happening in Uganda. Keeping quite and hiding behind the finger of strategy is the highest level of cowardice I have ever seen. You may as well come out of your closets and just say “We are glad it is not us”.

By: James

James — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 15:35:45 +0000

In reply to melanie nathan. I fear that may be the problem. We believe ourselves shielded by a constitution, believing that what is happening in Uganda won't embolden calls for the same changes here. We can already foresee Zimbabwe falling in line behind Uganda and Nigeria. Do we have to wait until people here start declaring the same anti-gay beliefs and making the same demands here before we, as a community, decide to rise and act, rather than acting as a ward of the State? Telling ourselves "it won't happen here" is essentially the coward's way out and, indeed, akin to writing the death warrant for our own civil liberties.

By: melanie nathan

melanie nathan — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 13:40:53 +0000

Would they have liked the silence and quiet diplomacy through apartheid that would have got far!!! The lgbt community in Uganda has felt abandoned by sa govt for years. There has been 5 years for quiet diplomacy and there was none. Too late now… Too late… and as for that quote by Pandor any lgbt organization that supports such an attitude ought to think about the marginalization or lack of understanding about the anti gay laws and its severity. That remark derogates from everything else said. And if allowed to stand unchallenged then you may as well sign your own constitutional death warrant for the future.

By: James

James — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 11:32:24 +0000

Those who believe that quiet diplomacy is what is called for at this stage are sadly kidding themselves. The Zuma-led government feel no moral impetus to act against a partner African nation. Do we forget that President Zuma is the same leader who declared in 2006 that same-sex marriage is “a disgrace to the nation and to God”? Naledi Pandor likely represents the genuine attitude of the ANC leadership. Quiet diplomacy is what made so many SA- and AU-led initiatives fail miserably in our recent history, whilst allowing activists to rest comfortably on the sidelines while putting their trust in a government that will not act in the same direct, public fashion as Western nations. Stop kidding yourself, people. You’re repeating the same mistakes of so many gay politicos, spending more time talking and issuing press statement than acting, confronting and banging your fists.