Reports on social media about the vandalism of Cape Town’s rainbow crosswalk have sparked an onslaught of hateful responses, with many comments descending into hate speech.
Vandals first defaced the rainbow pedestrian crossing in the city’s De Waterkant area over the weekend, leaving black marks across it and scrawling the word “Jesus” on the surface. City officials quickly painted the crossing pink as an interim measure while they await rainbow-coloured paint to repair it.
But just hours later, a vandal again targeted the crosswalk with more anti-LGBTQ+ religious messaging, condemning “perversion” and citing Biblical scripture. MambaOnline was informed that an individual was arrested in connection with the incident.
Hundreds of Anti-LGBTQ+ Comments Documented
While some people condemned the vandalism on social media, others used the opportunity to further ridicule, insult and attack the LGBTQ+ community, adding insult to injury.
The organisation iZibuko Zethu, with support from OUT LGBT Well-being and Gender and Sexuality Alliance Buffalo City, recorded many of these incidents and collated hundreds of screenshots in a document spanning more than 80 pages.
In their comments, social media users perpetuated the religious bigotry reflected in the vandalism, with some applauding the illegal defacement.
Commenters described the crosswalk as “LGBTQIA+ propaganda”, “rainbow puke”, “depravity”, an attempt to “normalise LGBTQIA+ ideology to children…” and “pandering to abominations”.
Many showed no concern about publicly using anti-LGBTQ+ slurs in their remarks, including “f*ggots” and “m*ffies”, simply over a rainbow crossing. The scale, brazenness and breadth of the comments, despite South Africa’s hate speech legislation, are shocking.
Inciting Violence Over Cape Town’s Rainbow Crosswalk
Brent Lindeque, widely known as the Good Things Guy, also reported on the vandalism on Facebook and revealed that one individual said they were “praying that De Waterkant is set alight and everyone there is burnt alive… in Jesus’ name”. When he confronted them, they deleted the comment.
Lindeque expressed disbelief that a few metres of colourful road in the city could generate such bigotry and vehemence.
“That little rainbow crossing doesn’t take anything away from anyone. It doesn’t change your beliefs. It doesn’t change who you love. It doesn’t ask you to become anything you’re not. You can drive over it, walk across it, take a photo on it or completely ignore it,” he wrote.
OUT LGBT Well-being Warns About Online Hate Speech
Sibonelo Ncanana-Trower, Human Rights Coordinator at OUT LGBT Well-being, told MambaOnline he was deeply concerned by the vandalism and “by the hateful and degrading language being circulated online in response to it.”
Ncanana-Trower continued: “What is particularly concerning is how quickly physical acts of vandalism can be accompanied by online hate speech, insults and dehumanising language. These are not simply ‘opinions’ when they are used to target people because of who they are. Hate speech creates an environment in which discrimination and violence can become normalised.”
He stated: “South Africa’s constitutional commitment to equality, dignity and freedom from discrimination applies to LGBTQ+ people too. Visibility does not take anything away from anyone else.”
Ncanana-Trower called on social media users to stop, report and challenge hate speech rather than amplify it, and urged platforms to take seriously content that threatens, dehumanises or incites hostility against LGBTQ+ people.
“To our LGBTQ+ communities: document hate, report incidents, support one another, and do not suffer these attacks in silence. Civil society organisations, public institutions and law-enforcement agencies must work together to ensure that incidents of anti-LGBTQ+ hate are recorded, addressed and acted upon.”
Organisations Consider Action Over Worst Hate Speech
Ncanana-Trower added: “This is bigger than a rainbow crossing. It is about whose dignity we protect, whose safety we value, and whether equality is something we uphold only in principle or actually defend in our communities.”
He told MambaOnline that the organisations were considering their options, including the possibility of taking action against those responsible for the worst of the hate speech.
The vandalism of the crosswalk comes amidst heightened national and international focus on the LGBTQ+ community in Cape Town. The city is set to host both an anti-LGBTQ+ “family values “conference in May 2027 followed by WorldPride in late 2028.
