From faith and healthcare to township Pride, HIV advocacy, refugee rights and decades of human-rights work, the 2026 Cape Town Pride Heroes Awards celebrated the people and movements doing the work when nobody is watching.
There are many ways to measure the strength of a community. Sometimes, however, the most meaningful measure is much quieter: the person who opens their home to someone rejected by their family, the activist who helps a stranger access healthcare, or the organiser who keeps showing up after the cameras have left.
That was the spirit of the Cape Town Pride Heroes Awards 2026 on Friday 25 September, which placed the spotlight on individuals and organisations whose work has strengthened LGBTQIA+ communities across Cape Town and beyond.
Opening the ceremony, journalist and talk-show host Shahan Ramkissoon, who served as MC, reminded guests that Pride is about more than celebration.
“Pride has never only been a party,” he said. “It is also about dignity. Safety. Healthcare. Belonging. Visibility. Activism.”
More than 30 nominations were received. Ramkissoon noted that every nominee had contributed something meaningful, but the evening was about bringing often-unseen contributions “out of the background” and “exactly where they belong”. “In the spotlight,” he declared.
Faith, healthcare and belonging
The first award went to The Pink Light Movement, founded by Pastor Beverly C David and later joined by Prophet Roxanne Erasmus.
At Cape Town Pride, the movement offered a “Free Hugs Found Here” sign. According to Ramkissoon, people approached smiling, hesitating and, in some cases, crying, finding affirmation rather than condemnation.
The award recognised the movement’s work to create spaces where “faith, identity and dignity can coexist”.
Igshaan Waleed de Vries was honoured for work spanning HIV prevention, transgender healthcare and LGBTQIA+ health advocacy. He contributed to the pilot PrEP rollout for men who have sex with men in the Western Cape before moving into transgender healthcare, including access to gender-affirming services and hormone replacement therapy.
More recently, he helped bring City Health into Cape Town Pride for the first time and coordinated an LGBTQIA+ awareness campaign in Kuils River.
“Inclusion in healthcare cannot just be something written in a policy. People have to actually experience it,” Ramkissoon said.
No borders on belonging
For Nyasha “Masi” Zhakata, belonging has an even wider geography. For more than a decade, Zhakata has advocated for LGBTQI+ refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and displaced people. As founder and Executive Director of the Pachedu LGBTIQ+ Collective, their work has created community for people navigating displacement, discrimination and queer identity.
At the centre of that work is a simple message: “Refugees Welcome.”
Liam du Preez Paterson, known through his drag persona Madones, was recognised for work at the intersection of queer performance and healthcare advocacy.
His production The Resurrection Files raised R200,000 for AidsArk, including matched funding from Madam Zingara, with proceeds supporting frontline HIV care in Khayelitsha.
“Drag saves lives,” Ramkissoon said.
Community work is rarely glamorous
Daniella Contessa, Co-Director of the Belhar/Delft Pride Support Group, was recognised for making LGBTQIA+ people more visible and supported, including through partnerships with organisations and public institutions and the area’s first Pride Fitness Walk.
Through the Trans Guardians Alliance, honouree Donwell Mpofu has supported transgender and gender-diverse people, refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and people experiencing homelessness and displacement. Support has ranged from emergency shelter and humanitarian assistance to healthcare, psychosocial support, HRT access and identity documentation.
“This is not advocacy from a distance,” Ramkissoon observed. “It is stepping directly into somebody’s life at a moment when they need help.”
Anthene Roulet Onganisie’s guiding philosophy is simple: “You cannot stand by and do nothing.”
Her work with the Red Ribbon Foundation has included improving access to ARV treatment and supporting people following an HIV diagnosis. Her home also became a safe space for LGBTQIA+ people abandoned by their families because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status.
“Some people talk about community,” Ramkissoon said. “Some people literally open their front door.”
Pride beyond the parade
Yanga Gceya, President of Impulse Group Cape Town since late 2025, was recognised for his work as a community organiser, HIV activist and LGBTQI+ advocate.
Beginning as an Impulse volunteer in 2019, Gceya later joined the board before taking on the organisation’s presidency. His visibility as a person living with HIV has become part of his advocacy, challenging stigma.
Langa LGBTQI+ Pride was honoured as a grassroots, community-led movement rooted in one of Cape Town’s historic townships.
Its annual Pride March and Cultural Festival celebrate queer joy, while its work extends to hate crime, gender-based violence, discrimination, emergency assistance and health and psychosocial services.
“Pride matters everywhere,” Ramkissoon said. “But it matters particularly in places where being visible still requires courage.”
A lifetime of staying
The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Reverend Sharon Cox, recognising more than two decades of LGBTQIA+ human-rights advocacy across the Western Cape.
Her work included responding to hate crimes, supporting survivors, standing alongside grieving families and contributing to national efforts addressing LGBTQI+ hate crimes through Triangle Project and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s National Task Team.
“Movements need people who speak loudly,” Ramkissoon said. “But they also need people who stay.”
When culture becomes activism
The final Pride Hero award went to Impulse Group Cape Town, which has positioned health and human-rights advocacy inside queer cultural spaces.
Since 2018, the organisation has worked across healthcare, human rights, nightlife, ballroom, drag, pageantry and Pride. In 2026 alone, its community work distributed more than 10,000 condoms and 3,000 educational materials across queer spaces in Cape Town.
“Activism does not always happen in a conference room,” Ramkissoon noted. “Sometimes it happens at a march, drag show, on a dance floor.”
Earlier in the evening, Lynelle Kenned and Stefan Lombard were recognised for representing Cape Town Pride at WorldPride Amsterdam, where Kenned performed African Dream at the closing ceremony accompanied by Lombard.
The real meaning of a Pride Hero
The ceremony’s many stories converged around action: showing up, making space, opening doors, challenging stigma, providing shelter, creating visibility and protecting dignity.
As Ramkissoon reminded the room: “It is seeing that somebody needs help… and choosing to show up.”
The 2026 recipients may have left carrying awards, but their work continues long after the applause fades. Because Pride is not only what happens when the music starts. It is what happens when the music stops — and someone still chooses to stay.
Congratulations to the Cape Town Pride Heroes of 2026.
