There is “no chance in hell” that Zimbabwe’s new constitution will include gay rights, according to a key MP who sits on the parliamentary committee in charge of the process.
Edward Mkhosi (MDC), one of three chairmen of the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC), says despite clamouring for protection on foreign TV channels and the internet, Zimbabwe’s homosexuals are “cowards” who failed to make their views known during a countrywide outreach.
Mkhosi told the Voice of America's Studio 7:
“We gave our people a chance to decide what they want to see in the new constitution."
“In all the outreach meetings in the provinces we conducted, people were very clear that they don’t want gays. As you know in our culture, such practises are foreign to us, we only know a family with a father and mother.
“The gays and lesbians were cowards, not even one of them came out to say ‘I’m a homosexual and I want this’. We can’t talk for them, they are not zombies. They should have come out and said we want this thing, but they didn’t.”
Three drafters appointed by COPAC have begun writing the new constitution. The first four chapters were published in the media last week, immediately sparking a row.
Zanu PF officials accuse the drafters of seeking to leave the door open for the imposition of gay rights through the courts by deliberately using ambiguous language.
Chapter 4.6 (section 3) of the draft already published states that everyone has a right not to be treated in an “unfairly discriminatory manner on such grounds such as their nationality, race... natural difference ...”
Zanu PF supporter Tafadzwa Musarara blasted:
“It is the term ‘natural difference’ that, from a legal perspective, will import gay rights into our constitution. This phrase is not in our current constitution; it was not requested to be incorporated by the people during the hearings.
“It is such terms that lawyers will use to argue in court, to interpret it as stating that gay rights are justiciable or acceptable.”
Musarara points to South Africa where gay rights were introduced by the Constitutional Court which interpreted Section 9.3 of the constitution providing that “the state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation” to mean that gays were free to marry.
“In our Zimbabwe case the writers are using ‘natural differences’ to provide a loophole that gays and lesbians can then use to apply to the courts of law to have their unions recognised,” Musarara said.
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (Galz) director Chesterfield Samba says the issue of gay rights will be a key test for the country’s new constitution .
“It will reveal whether there is a determination to draw a constitution which will comply with Zimbabwe’s obligations and undertakings in International Law and the norms of human rights,” Samba said.
“It will also reveal whether it will comply with the democratic requirement of an acceptance of difference, seek to build a non-stigmatising society which embraces all its constituents, or whether it will be merely an expression of subservience to those who wield political power.”
A bizarre controversy has broken out in Zimbabwe over pink rubbish bins.
The bins were donated by a gay group, the Sexual Rights Centre, to
the city of Bulawayo. They're metal, painted pink and have the group's
name on.
They were donated whilst the ruling Zanu-PF party of Robert Mugabe was holding a conference in the city - not coincidentally,
according to SW Radio Africa correspondent Lionel Saungweme - where
the party once more decided to put forward the 87-year old Mugabe as
President. Sexual Rights Center spokesman Mojalisa Mokoele said the
donation of trash bins was intended to raise awareness of
cleanliness.
The Bulawayo United Residents Association condemned the bin donation and there have been calls to paint the bins black.
But Bulawayo's Mayor Thaba Moyo, a member of the opposition MDC-T
party, has insisted the City Council will be using the 20 dustbins.
"We really welcome this donation and we
are busy trying to arrange to put them in strategic places that receive
a lot of traffic," Mayor Moyo said.
There has been a storm around LGBT rights in Zimbabwe with the recent pro-gay comments of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangarai, from the opposition MDC party, and a nasty split in the Anglican Church's local branch over the issue. MDC members have threatened to name names of closeted gays in Mugabe's party.
A spokesperson for the faction of Tsvangarai's party which opposes
him said it was not surprised Cllr Moyo chose to accept the pink bins.
“To us this is not a surprise. Tsvangirai
and his people have been advocating for gays and lesbians rights hence
they accepted this donation with open hands,” organising secretary,
Qhubani Moyo said.
“However, Tsvangirai and his party should
not bring gays to Bulawayo. If they want to do it, they should go and
do it at Harvest House (MDC-T headquarters), not here.”
Nearly half a million asylum seekers in South Africa may lose their right to earn a living or study while their refugee status is being determined after indications that the government plans to amend legislation governing those rights.
An announcement on 23 November that Cabinet is "reviewing" the minimum rights of immigrants, including the right to work and study, was followed by a media briefing two days later at which Mkuseli Apleni, Director General of the Department of Home Affairs, suggested that the asylum seeker system was being abused.
"The right [of asylum seekers] to work and study has created a problem," he said. "People by default are going through the asylum seeker process in order to be able to work, but the majority are economic migrants using a back door."
Apleni noted that South Africa has the largest number of asylum seeker applications in the world. The system needed "streamlining", he said, and an amendment to current legislation would likely be passed in the next legislative year.
Refugee rights groups have reacted to the announcement with alarm. A joint statement by several civil society groups, including the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, and People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP), argues that the review is a precursor to the withdrawal of rights that will "force more asylum seekers underground, thus making them liable to exploitation".
"It's going to limit people's employment opportunities, deny children living here a right to education, [and] increase tensions with locals," predicted PASSOP director Braam Hanekom.
South Africa's 1998 Refugees Act is silent on the question of whether someone who has been issued an asylum seeker permit can work or study while awaiting a decision on their refugee status. An attempt by Home Affairs to expressly prohibit work and study was challenged when a case was brought to court in 2003 by the Cape Town-based Legal Resources Centre (LRC) on behalf of a Zimbabwean woman and her disabled son.
The matter went to the Supreme Court of Appeals, where the judge ruled that freedom to work and study were "an important component of human dignity", and guaranteed by the country's Bill of Rights.
"The judgement was a resounding endorsement of asylum seekers' right to work, and they're obviously trying to override that," said William Kerfoot, the LRC attorney who handled the case.
Asylum seekers, who are not eligible for any kind of social support, often wait years for their applications to be processed, and prohibiting them from working "effectively turned them into criminals or beggars", he commented.
More than half of asylum seeker applications in South Africa are made by Zimbabweans fleeing economic hardship and human rights violations. Very few of them are eventually recognized as refugees, but applying for asylum is often their only legal avenue for remaining in the country.
The resulting flood of applications has created a backlog in the asylum system that the Department of Home Affairs attempted to address in 2009 by introducing a special dispensation to lift the threat of deportation from undocumented Zimbabwean migrants.
This World AIDS Day, as the United Nations Global Commission on HIV and the Law draws up its final recommendations, the Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF) urges national legislators around the world to review and repeal laws that undermine access to HIV services for gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). To help illustrate the connection between HIV and the law for this key population, the MSMGF has launched a new collection of resources that features case studies, toolkits and never-before-seen video testimonials from grassroots MSM advocates in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Cameroon.
“From laws criminalizing homosexuality in more than 70 countries to laws punishing non-disclosure of one’s HIV status, punitive legal environments around the world prevent MSM from accessing life-saving services,” said Dr. George Ayala, Executive Officer of the MSMGF. “This is a major problem for the HIV response among MSM around the world, in countries rich and poor alike.”
The content of the archive was selected to make clear the connection between HIV and the law for this highly-impacted population, as well as provide grassroots organizations with tools to aid in legal advocacy for the health and human rights of MSM.
“Civil society has formed the backbone of the response to the HIV epidemic among MSM around the world, with local men rising up to care for their own communities where support from government and society is lacking or absent,” said Krista Lauer, Policy Associate at the MSMGF. “This archive is part of a larger effort to equip grassroots organizations with the information and resources they need to hold governments and multilateral institutions accountable for doing quality HIV work, including addressing harmful laws.”
The website features the MSMGF's Specialist Submission to the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, made public for the first time. Drawing upon focus group interviews, published research and other sources, the report makes five recommendations for law-based action that would have a game-changing impact on the HIV response for MSM:
Review and repeal laws that undermine the HIV response among MSM
Address the inappropriate enforcement of laws that hinder access to HIV services for MSM, through coordination, education and training with the judiciary and law enforcement officials
Establish laws that protect the health and rights of MSM, and bring perpetrators of violence and other human rights abuses against MSM to justice
Implement know-your-rights campaigns, and create enabling environments in which individuals can lay claim to their rights
Integrate the law as a core pillar in all National AIDS Reponses, and adopt a rights-based approach to the HIV response
“We know that laws and policies that uphold the human rights of gay men and facilitate their access to services are absolutely essential for an effective HIV response,” said Dr. Ayala. “But real action to transform legal environments has been bogged down by fear, stigma, and a lack of political will to take on the tough issues. Courageous activists have continued to raise their voices in this struggle, often at great personal expense to themselves and their families. We call on all Member States of the United Nations to heed the call of civil society, and recognize that the human rights movement is the HIV movement.”
The Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF) is an expanding network of AIDS organizations, MSM networks, and advocates committed to ensuring robust coverage of and equitable access to effective HIV prevention, care, treatment, and support services tailored to the needs of gay men and other MSM. Guided by a Steering Committee of 20 members from 18 countries situated mainly in the Global South, and with administrative and fiscal support from AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), the MSMGF works to promote MSM health and human rights worldwide through advocacy, information exchange, knowledge production, networking, and capacity building.
In 1995 Robert Mugabe hit the headlines when he said gay people “behave worse than dogs and pigs”. That same year he used a speech during a national holiday to proclaim: “If you see people parading themselves as lesbians and gays, arrest them and hand them over to the police.”
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai predictably provoked a backlash from Mugabe’s regime when he suggested that gay people had human rights, and should be protected in a new constitution. Those remarks triggered a vicious campaign by the state media, with war vets leader Jabulani Sibanda even calling for Tsvangirai to be ‘stoned to death’ because he spoke out in defence of gay rights.
But ZANU PF is extremely hypocritical in its approach to homosexuality and SW Radio Africa can report that many officials inside Mugabe’s government have been accused of engaging in the same lifestyle. The country’s first ceremonial President after independence, Canaan Banana, is the most prominent example.
Banana was arrested in 1997 on charges of sodomy following revelations made in the murder trial of former bodyguard, Jefta Dube. It came out in the trial that Banana’s preferred method of seduction was to dance to Dolly Parton records, while wearing a belt of bullets across his chest.
The trial exposed how Banana coerced (often against their will) numerous men in his service as President, ranging from domestic staff to security guards, into accepting sexual advances. He even targeted members of some of the sports teams for whom he had acted as referee during matches. Banana was found guilty of eleven charges of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault in 1998.
Although Banana fled to South Africa while still on bail he eventually returned to Zimbabwe in December 1998 after being convinced by the then South African President Nelson Mandela to go back and face the ruling. Banana was sentenced to ten years in jail, nine years suspended. In November 2003, Banana died of cancer.
In August 2009, a 31 year old Bulawayo man Mncedisi Twala, sensationally claimed that the then ZANU PF National Chairman and now Vice President, John Nkomo, molested him in April 2002. After fleeing to South Africa Twala says he came back after the formation of the unity government and filed a police complaint in July 2009.
The police however refused to investigate his complaint until they called him to supply more information. He was arrested, allegedly for making a false report, and spent 6 days in custody. Twala also claims attempts were made at Luveve Police station in Bulawayo to inject him with a mysterious substance.
Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's support for LGBT rights, in comments to the BBC this week has been a major issue with spokespeople for his MDC party keen to play it down.
But the ruling Zanu-PF party of Robert Mugabe have an obvious interest in playing it up and that's what's been happening. On October 25 half the government-run TV news bulletin was devoted to slamming Tsvangirai's backing of gay rights.
“He thinks Zimbabwe is Europe. This is Africa,” said Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo. “He is misguided and unfortunately he does not understand what is happening in Zimbabwe.”
At the first Prime Minister's Question Time in Zimbabwe's parliament on Thursday ruling party MPs lined up to declare Tsvangirai "misguided” and “out of sync with reality on the ground.”
But when an MDC MP asked whether the PM was advocating for gay rights in the constitution there was wild laughter when Tsvangirai said:
“Perhaps I am speaking here kuda mumwe musi mungangodai muringochani panapa (we may be talking while some of you may be gays here). What you do in your private sphere is your private problem.”
Guma asked if his statement to the BBC was, as widely reported and as I examined earlier in the week, a 'U-turn' and whether Tsvangirai wasn't "opening yourself to political point scoring?"
Tsvangirai repeated the line he gave the parliament:
"My attitude towards gay rights has never changed. I’m not gay and therefore I don’t prescribe anyone’s sexual preferences. What you should understand is that this is a diversion, the real issue is that the people of Zimbabwe are writing a constitution and that it is the people of Zimbabwe who are going to define what society they would like."
"Including the fact yekuti (that) if the majority don’t like gays, they will not reflect it in their constitution, but it’s up to Zimbabweans, it cannot be written just to satisfy one individual just because at one stage in their life they’ve been traumatized."
"So one has to say that the issue of gay rights is a diversion, an elitist project to avoid the poor people who are around the country who don’t have anything. So let’s concentrate, let’s not try to bring to the forefront an issue which is definitely inconsequential."
Whether Tsvangirai's 'personal views' can be successfully exploited by Zanu-PF remains to be seen. In neighbouring Zambia's recent Presidential election the attempt to use LGBT rights as a wedge issue clearly failed.
And in the SW Radio Africa interview Tsvangirai pointed to one of those issues LGBT rights could be seen as a diversion from. Asked about another recent violent Zanu-PF disruption of a public hearing, this one on new electoral laws he said:
"Well I mean it’s not a perfect society, it’s not a perfect situation. I mean we have always said that Zanu PF’s character of violence, intimidation, coercion, it’s not something they will wake up one morning and try to discuss, it’s part of their culture but it doesn’t mean necessarily that our people must also not be determined to make their views be heard."
Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) have urged Tsvangirai "to have the courage to stand by his laudable respect for human rights in the face of the propaganda and unpopularity that will be generated by the Zimbabwean media around his position."
"True leadership remains steadfast in the pursuit of justice and equality,” they say.
A man carries the scars after a gang tried to hack his arms off with pangas and another was almost murdered by his own mother. Their crime? Being gay and born in countries that view homosexuality as an abomination. They have come to South Africa for refuge in fear of such persecution.
The interview was headlined as "a gay rights U-turn" by Tsvangirai, but, as I was reporting last year, his actual position has been somewhat opaque.
The statement was part of a substantial interview with the BBC's premier news show 'Newsnight'
Tsvangirai told the BBC that he would defend gay rights if he became president in the forthcoming Zimbabwean elections and he said that sexual orientation should be included in Zimbabwe's constitution, which is currently in a lengthy and controversial revision process.
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) welcomed Tsvangirai's statement and asked that he now take positive action to support his statement on the indivisibility of human rights.
"We urge him to have the courage to stand by his laudable respect for human rights in the face of the propaganda and unpopularity that will be generated by the Zimbabwean media around his position."
"True leadership remains steadfast in the pursuit of justice and equality," they said.
VOA Interview with GALZ Director Chesterfield Shamba:
Although Tsvangirai has been widely reported, including in this BBC story, as being publicly opposed to homosexuality prior to this interview, the history of both him and his MDC party on LGBT human rights is far more opaque.
"We're not writing a constitution for the west, we're writing a constitution for Zimbabweans. It is Zimbabweans that have to give their views regarding that particular issue. I hope they will be progressive, they will be liberal, but I know how Zimbabweans feel about that particular subject."
Asked for his personal view, Tsvangirai said: "There's no such thing as personal view. If I give my personal view, people will say the prime minister is influencing what the outcome should be. My personal view is known publicly and I don't need to repeat that."
Last year, internationally reported remarks by Tsvangirai at a rally alongside President Robert Mugabe seemed to suggest the opposition to homosexuality - and support for Mugabe's position - which the BBC reports he had. Afrik.com reported Tsvangirai's remarks as: “I don't agree with the idea of a man breathing hard on the neck of another man while humping him." An official in Tsvangirai’s office later told reporters that the Prime Minister had only been expressing his personal views and not those of his party.
In an open letter to Tsvangirai the Kubatana Trust of Zimbabwe, which includes Zimbabwean NGOs and civil society organisations, questioned whether the remarks quoted in the Zanu-PF supporting Herald newspaper which then went around the world were actually made by Tsvangirai. They asked:
If it is an accurate reflection of the Prime Minister’s response, and his personal views, what is the position of the MDC about homosexuality, gay rights and the protection of gay rights in the Constitution?
There can be no place in the new Zimbabwe for hate speech or the persecution of any sector of our population based on race, gender, tribe, culture, sexual orientation or political affiliation. All of us are entitled to our own opinions on certain values and beliefs, but in order to move our nation forward and achieve national reconciliation and healing, we have to uphold and foster the fundamental principle of tolerance, including tolerance of people that have chosen to live, believe and vote differently from ourselves.
For too long, many of you, my fellow Zimbabweans, have not had the freedom of choice. Our new constitution shall be the cornerstone of a new society that embraces this particular freedom of choice and tolerance of both majority and minority views.
GALZ also wrote to Tsvangirai asking for clarification on the reported remarks but did not get a response.
Then a month after this letter was released the Select Committee for the country's new constitution (Copac) said that no protections for LGBT would be included and that their 'outreach teams' will not elicit any views on the issue.
Copac chairperson Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana said:
“During the outreach training programme, the issue was never raised. The issue of gays and lesbians has been shunned by all the three principals to the Global Political Agreement."
The principals to that agreement which the new constitution is part of are Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the divided opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
Mangwana also said it was key for the nation to focus on issues of development rather than to focus on "weird Western cultures".
London based activist Godwyns Onwuchekwa of Justice for Gay Africans says that when he shared a panel with a top MDC official they told him that they would not support LGBT rights "simply because they will lose the support of the masses if they support it."
Despite Mugabe’s rhetoric, arrests of gays have been rare and the raids appear to be an attempt by Zanu-PF to bait the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has no coherent position on gay rights. Zanu-PF could be looking to put Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on the spot - he cannot condemn the arrests without being seen as supporting gay rights, which are strongly opposed by his supporters. But he cannot support the arrests as this will anger his civil society allies and Western supporters, who want an end to years of restrictions on personal freedom under Mugabe.
Zimbabwe Independent reported that LGBT rights are being used by Zanu-PF party to push through Mugabe's version of a new Zimbabwe constitution, known as the 'Kariba draft':
The issue of gay rights has taken centre stage in the constitution outreach programme with Zanu PF reportedly telling villagers in Mashonaland West that any constitutional provisions outside what is in the controversial Kariba draft will promote same sex marriages and homosexuality.
Villagers in President Robert Mugabe’s rural home in Zvimba, 110km west of Harare, and neighbouring Chitomborwizi in Makonde district now strongly believe that those calling for a people-driven constitution, who are opposed to the Kariba draft, want to include the issue of gay rights in the new constitution. Zanu PF, the villagers allege, is using homosexuality, something which they know people – particularly those in rural areas – are strongly opposed to, to make sure that they parrot what is in the Kariba draft.
Villagers claimed that Zanu PF campaigned for the Kariba draft, written by the three political parties in the inclusive government, during meetings prior to the constitution outreach programme. Villagers in Chief Chirau’s area, also known as Kawondera village in Zvimba, say that they were addressed by soldiers three weeks ago, who told them that they should demand a constitution with an executive president who has far-reaching powers to appoint without any consultation.
The villagers refused to be named for fear of being victimised for adopting what might be perceived as “anti-Zanu PF” positions on the constitution.
In that open letter to Tsvangeri the Kubatana Trust of Zimbabwe cited the current situation in Uganda of a serious and violent backlash against LGBT. They warned Tsvangirai that the encouragement by politicians of prejudice against minorities "can easily fuel violence, hatred, and intolerance, which can divide the country."
"It is imperative," they wrote, "that politicians use their public profile and status to promote tolerance, encourage diversity, and embrace all sectors of the population. To do otherwise is an egregious, offensive violation of the spirit of democracy, peace, human rights and ubuntu [an ethical concept of African origin emphasizing community, sharing and generosity] on which the Movement for Democratic Change is founded."
It would appear that Tsvangirai is now listening to Zimbabwean civil society like Kubatana Trust. However resistance has already started. In Harare, Tsvangirai's spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka reacted to the BBC interview by telling AFP that the prime minister still believes that "the issue of homosexuality is alien in Africa".
"However, he is a social democrat" said Tamborinyoka. "What he was saying is that ordinary people's rights must be respected as long as they do their things in private."
In Zimbabwe there a bitter and violent split within the Anglican Church in which lesbian and gay Zimbabweans are being used as a scapegoat.
Bishop Nolbert Kunonga was excommunicated in 2007 for inciting violence in sermons supporting President Robert Mugabe's party, ZANU-PF. His speeches are dominated by accusations that those who oppose him are homosexuals or support them.
But many believe that the split is really about money and power: Kunonga has taken over the main cathedral in Harare, schools and the church's bank accounts. Last month the nuns at an orphanage with 80 children were evicted. Police have been accused of siding with Kunonga in the fight for properties as they reportedly rush to arrest his rivals while leaving his people to cause terror.
At the orphanage The Rev. Richard Mombeshora, said pleas for police to intervene to stop the takeovers were ignored. Visitors to the orphanage have since reported that children appeared not to have received regular meals and it was not clear whether qualified replacement staff had arrived.
“These people confess openly they don’t fear the law. So you just put your faith in God,” Mombeshora said, adding, “We don’t marry homosexuals here. We don’t approve of it at all.”
Update, 18 October: VOA reports that Zimbabwe's Education Ministry has ordered the teachers be reinstated.
Zimbabwe's Supreme Court has allowed Kunonga to retain control of Anglican properties. Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku is an open supporter of ZANU-PF.
In an attempt to change the situation The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, last week visited Zimbabwe. He told more than 15,000 mainstream Anglican worshippers gathered for mass at a Harare stadium that Anglican worshippers are constantly "tortured by uncertainty and risk of attack" and have endured "mindless and Godless assaults."
He praised the worshippers for being "active and courageous".
Kunonga and his supporters demonstrated outside Harare's main cathedral against Williams' visit because he said Williams' visit was a "crusade for gays." Inside, his supporters waved placards reading 'homosexuals must die'.
"This is a demonstration against homosexuality. I told people to come and demonstrate if they wanted," Kunonga said. "Rowan Williams erred by accepting homosexuality and that has broken up the church all over."
"I do not want to meet with someone who subscribes to homosexuality."
Williams did meet President Robert Mugabe:
"We have asked, in the clearest possible terms, that the President use his powers as Head of State to put an end to all unacceptable and illegal behaviour," said Williams.
"We deeply deplore the manner in which many of the historic assets of the church that include hospitals, schools have not only been seized by the breakaway group but are no longer being used for the purpose for which they were designed."
The South African government has denied that it has started removing Zimbabwean refugees but the South African refugee group PASSOP says "we are now convinced that the Department of Home Affairs has lifted South Africa’s moratorium on deporting Zimbabweans."
“We received a memo from the South African Home Affairs Department on Thursday last week notifying us of their plans to deport undocumented Zimbabweans.”
Shadaya also reportedly said that “deportations will commence with immediate effect, though we are yet to receive any repatriates from that country.”
PASSOP has exposed abuse of asylum seekers at refugee reception centers compromising their right to apply for refugee status. They also say that any deportations are in direct contradiction to the recent undertakings made by the Department of Home Affair’s Director General, Mkuseli Apleni, while addressing the Parliamentary Portfolio committee for Home Affairs. Apleni said that the government would not embark on deportations of Zimbabweans until the Zimbabwean Documentation Project has been completed, appeals reviewed and the minister approved deportations.
About 275 000 applications for permits were received under the project and South Africa has insisted it will lift a moratorium on Zim deportations when the process is complete.
Passop say that it will now be impossible to clarify how many people are in South Africa:
"It is obvious that sadly many immigrants in South Africa will ‘go underground’ into hiding and be unwilling to open doors to officials conducting the census."
"The number of immigrants living in South Africa has been subject to much speculation. In particular the number of Zimbabweans has been a hotly contested: while the Department has claimed that the vast majority had been documented in the recent Zimbabwean Documentation Project, many civil society organizations, including the IOM, IDASA House and Human Rights Watch have claimed that there could be as many as 1.5 million Zimbabweans in South Africa."
"This latest move will continue to obscure the actual number of Zimbabweans living in South Africa. South Africa will have to keep depending on deportation numbers and estimates hence forth, as surely undocumented Zimbabweans will not answer doors to be counted and will do everything they can to avoid arrest and deportation."
PASSOP fears that deportations will stoke xenophobia and “Afrophobic” tensions and raised the possibility of communities “witch hunting”, with neighbors turning on their neighbors, South Africans turning on fellow Africans.
"We believe that deportation is an Apartheid tendency," they say, "and that deportations of fellow Africans is un-African."
Gabriel Shumba from the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum told SW Radio Africa 4 October that deportations are a bad idea, saying “the political situation (in Zimbabwe) has not yet changed enough to accommodate forced returns.”
“We don’t think Zimbabwe is in a situation that can be called ‘stable’. There is another election on the cards and we believe violence is very likely,” PASSOP’s Braam Hanekom said.
The latest reported escape from censure of a reportedly gay journalist working for Zimbabwe's government media has led to a call for a 'sex audit' by an opposition, diaspora website.
Last month we reported how Robert Mukondiwa had been discovered in flagrante delicto with a man in Namibia whilst covering a visit by President Mugabe. Reports said that the news of the outing had reached Mugabe who asked who was 'protecting him'.
Mukondiwa is a senior Zimbabwean journalist. Last year he was reportedly caught having sex with another reporter in the newsroom of government owned The Herald by a security guard.
According to opposition website Zimbabwe News Online Mukondiwa is on the payroll of the ruling ZANU-PF party and is a member of Mugabe's presidential staff.
Zimeye reports that Mukondiwa has been spared disciplinary action by the president. When asked, they report, by a friend if he was going anywhere after the incident, Mukondiwa said he was not: ”Hapana kwandiri kuenda ini. Handiende zvachose. I live forever shamwari,” he said.
Zimeye now says that its readers are demanding a 'sex(ual orientation) audit' at Zimbabwe’s JOMIC (Joint Operations and Implementation Committee) offices. JOMIC is the Zimbabwean multipartisan panel that was first launched on January 30, 2009, pursuant of the 2008 Zimbabwean power-sharing agreement.
Citing the Mukondiwa incident, they claim that because Jonathan Moyo is now on the JOMIC board, and because Moyo has previously criticised Mugabe's anti-gay stance, the 'audit' is needed.
Moyo is a controversial figure who has both worked for, opposed and is now again defending Mugabe. He is blocked from traveling to the US because of anti-democratic history. Rumours have circulated that he is gay, as well as rumours about one of Mugabe's vice presidents and other Mugabe officials.
A Zimeye reader claimed of Moyo that:
“Records and statistics show that wherever this man lays his hands you end up with homosexual relationship scandals. It happened at ZBC, it happened in Politiburo when he joined, it happened at Zimpapers where he appointed all the journalists, Students at institutions where he has lectured. Now mark my words someone in JOMIC will be caught pants down again.”
Meanwhile, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) reports a recent brutal attack on a lesbian in the town of Chitungwiza, south of Harare.
The woman, who has not been named, had earlier been insulted at a local bar where she was in the company of a female “friend”.
The woman, described as in her 20s, was “punched in the stomach and pushed to the floor” by two men who also kicked her.
“One of the men broke a bottle of beer on her head,” a GALZ statement said on Wednesday.
She underwent treatment for her injuries at Chitungwiza General Hospital.
“Medical reports were used to open a case against the perpetrators with the police,” the statement added.
A police spokesman confirmed two men had been interviewed over the September 2 incident and investigations were continuing.
GALZ said the attack followed “continued reports of harassment and threats towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the area by known individuals”.
In 2002, I was at university in Nigeria and standing for election. A magazine wrote about me and exposed me as being gay. This led the university to set up a disciplinary committee. I was very nearly dismissed. When I did graduate, people wanted to refuse me my certificate on the grounds that I did not have good enough morals to be an alumnus of the university. While this was going on, the then-president, Olusegun Obasanjo, declared that there were no homosexuals in Nigeria, and that such a thing would not be allowed in the country.
I talked with a friend of mine, who is a famous Nigerian talkshow host, about challenging this opinion. Nobody had come out publicly before. So, in October 2004, I appeared on her breakfast show, New Dawn with Funmi Iyanda". I talked about my sexuality, the burden of the HIV epidemic in the gay community.
The reaction was immediate and violent. I was subjected to brutality from the police and the community. I was disowned by my family and lost many friends, including in the gay community. They were afraid to know me. I was isolated, with no support and no job. The TV show was taken off the air by the government. It led to the introduction of the Same Sex Prohibition bill of 2006. All I had done was say who I was. Three years later I appeared on the BBC World Service. I repeated what I had said on television in Nigeria and suggested my government was using attacks on homosexuality to help cover up its own corruption.
On my arrival back to Nigeria, I was arrested, detained and beaten by the police. For a month, until I fled back to the UK in April 2007, my life was in constant danger.
Nassr, from Iraq
I was working for the Americans as a translator. When I got back to Iraq, I found that my house had been confiscated by the Mahdi militia. They are Shia, I am Christian. When I knocked on the door, I said: "This is my house." They said: "This is not your house. Either you go or we kill you." They beat me. They hit me on my head with their guns. I ran away, so they went after my sons instead. I heard they had asked my neighbours about me, and the neighbours had told them I am gay. I was now in real danger.
Every informed citizen is aware that our Zimbabwean constitutional experts are busy drafting what could potentially become our new Constitution of Zimbabwe, superseding the patently colonial Lancaster House Constitution.
One aspect that our anonymous drafters of the new constitution must be grappling with as they sift through the numerous views gathered by the constitutional outreach programme is the submerged issue of Zimbabwe’s sexual minorities, gays and lesbians.
There is no doubt that ethnic and racial minorities of Zimbabwean will find more accommodation in this envisaged constitution more than these sexual minorities. This is the raison d’etre of this article.
As in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, until recently, there was no sustained, popular debate about homosexuality in Zimbabwe. It seems to me that, historically speaking, the issue of homosexuality was and still is a non-issue for most Africans because of the general assumption that homosexuality never existed in African societies.
Indeed, having grown up in Zimbabwe, I only got to know that there was such a thing as homosexuality when I got to university! And quite immediately, the moment I learnt about homosexuality it was cast as a deviant sexuality that was un/anti-African. And this is the most pervasive attitude that most Africans have towards homosexuality – they see homosexuality not as a bad thing for other foreign or non-African people to embrace, but as a culturally un-African behaviour.
I remember that in the 1990s, when a small group of gay activists openly protested against laws that criminalised homosexuality, literally the majority of the Zimbabwean populace closed ranks in opposition to homosexuality (in a similar fashion to what is happening now in Uganda, Malawi and elsewhere). I regret it now, but when President Robert Mugabe issued his now infamous 1995 aspersion against gays as “worse than pigs and dogs”, I enthusiastically endorsed that sentiment, despite my own revulsion with Mugabe’s dictatorial tendencies.
The argument then was, and has always been, that homosexuality is un-African and that it never existed in any prominent way in African societies. Most Africans today actually argue and believe that Western nations are the ones responsible for past and current attempts to foist or impose the acceptance of homosexuality on African countries and their peoples, a practice many believe to be “western” or “European”. And I also suspect that the obsession has been mostly with male-to-male sexualities because of the general presumption and fear that homosexuality is an attack on African masculinity.
But of course, as historians of Africa are beginning to learn, we now know that the basic assumptions underlying these African attitudes towards homosexuality are wrong and quite clearly ahistorical. At the very dawn of history in southern Africa, when there was a transition from the hunting-gathering economy of the Khoisan to the cattle-based economy of Bantu-speaking people that brought more male control over the sexuality of women, dissident sexualities such as hungochani began to emerge or were already known.
On particular midweek nights, throngs of men and women gather at a few particular clubs to dance the night away to pulsating beats, and sometimes live music. The men dance provocatively close to each other, with reckless abandon. The few women around do the same with each other. Kisses are even exchanged.
At seaside dance parties where beer and reggae flow to all and sundry, it’s no longer uncommon for men and women in Ghana’s capital city, Accra, to test the waters and try to pick up companions of the same sex. Even in conservative Ghana, it seems that gays and lesbians are taking steps out in the public domain, at least at night.
But like elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, a backlash to that new openness has erupted as well. Since late May, it has spilled out onto the radio. Hours are spent debating whether gays should be allowed to exist here. Then Ghanaians wake up to national headlines screaming that gays and lesbians are dirty and sinful and ought to be locked up.
The pattern is becoming a familiar one throughout sub-Saharan Africa. As evangelical Christianity has seen its fastest growth on the continent, gay communities have simultaneously grown more open. The parallel developments have led to a growing list of countries in which politicians and media outlets have both incited and exploited social panic around sexuality. In the late 1990s, a beleaguered Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe drew global attention as he invited violence against gay people and blamed the country’s growing troubles on the European deprivation he said they symbolized. Since then, similar moments have struck in places stretching across the continent. Most recently, Uganda has been embroiled in controversy over a proposed law that would, among other things, allow the death penalty as a punishment for homosexuality. The authors of that law are closely tied to the U.S. religious right.
Now, this West African nation is having its own gay-dialogue moment and, once again, much of it has been unsavory, with religious leaders and some politicians stoking the flames.
“Gay bashing had never been a feature of the Ghanaian social landscape until, oh, I would say the last 10-15 years. And it came with the evangelical Christians,” says Nat Amartefio, 67, a historian, lifelong resident and former mayor of Accra.
“It’s these evangelicals who are looking for Satan everywhere, in everybody’s drawers, who have created this specter of an expanding gay universe. In all fairness, maybe they see things that those of us who are not involved cannot see. But they are the ones who are driving this hysteria,” Amartefio adds.
Eighty three refugees who were detained by the Zimbabwean government in February have vanished, amid fears that they have been deported to their countries of origin in violation of United Nations rules.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative for Zimbabwe, Marcellin Hepie, told The Zimbabwean that he did not know what had happened to the asylum seekers.
"As far as the people you are talking about are concerned, I really don't have any information. But they are not at Tongogara refugee camp," Hepie said.
UNHCR documents in our possession show that 83 foreign refugees, including some who had made the arduous journey from Somalia and Ethiopia, were detained by the Harare authorities for illegal entry into the country.
"In February, approximately 83 asylum seekers were detained (including 21 under the age of 21)," the documents say.
The UNHCR expressed concern that most of the refugees granted asylum in Zimbabwe fled the country.
"At the beginning of 2011, Tongogara refugee camp experienced appropriately 70 to 90 new arrivals each month. It was reported in March that approximately 300 Somalis and Ethiopians transit through Zimbabwe every month. Of these individuals eventually reaching the camp, only 30 to 35 percent remain in the camp," UNHCR said.
Moira Gombingo, a senior refugee official in the Department of Social Welfare, confirmed to The Zimbabwean that asylum seekers entering Zimbabwe were routinely handed over to the CIO [Central Intelligence Organization] for interrogation.
"From a security point of view, we have to find out who these so-called asylum seekers are. We call in the security agencies to deal with these state spies," Gombingo said.
She confirmed that after being grilled by the CIO, the asylum seekers were then handed to the security services of their countries of origin without being allowed access to the UNHCR.
"We have to consider bilateral relations. For example, because we are in good books with the Zambians, if any of their nationals come, we let Zambian security deal with the issue," Gombingo said.
She confirmed that during the DRC civil war, Rwandan refugees had been "dealt with" because the country was at war with Zimbabwe's ally.
A gay journalist, Robert Mukondiwa, discovered in flagrante delicto with a man in Namibia whilst covering a visit by President Mugabe says he is "not going anywhere". This is despite the news of the outing apparently reaching Mugabe who reportedly asked who was 'protecting him'.
Mukondiwa is a senior Zimbabwean journalist. Last year he was reportedly caught having sex with another reporter in the newsroom of government owned The Herald by a security guard.
Editors at Zimpapers take turns to accompany the President on his lucrative trips where they are paid hefty allowances. Mukondiwa accompanied President Mugabe to cover the summit of liberation war movements in SADC last week.
While in Windhoek, Mukondiwa, one of the finest journalists in the country, reportedly shared a room with an intelligence operative to mitigate the costs. But while the CIO operative was away, Mukondiwa hired a male gay hooker for a good time.
But the CIO operative returned earlier than anticipated and walked in on the two while they were humping. He reportedly alerted Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba. The matter was said to have reached Mugabe’s ears, who blew his top.
The newspaper suggested that he was being protected by Information minister Webster Shamu.
According to opposition website Zimbabwe News Online Mukondiwa is on the payroll of the ruling ZANUPF party and is a member of Mugabe's presidential staff.
“We have no problem in the two having a homosexual relationship, but converting the newsroom into a bedroom is uncalled for."
Meanwhile, pinknews.co.uk reports that homophobia is being used to fuel a schism in the Anglican Church that favours Mugabe supporters . This led last week to one priest being driven from his home.
Never before has a country launched such a large HIV program aimed at these vulnerable groups. It could mean a huge turnaround in reducing the number of HIV infections in the 16 countries.
The program will start in September 2011 and be implemented by seven Netherlands based organizations including GNP+. As well as the grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the program has been made possible by € 11.7 million from other sources.
The 4.5-year program has been judged the best by the ministry.
Earlier this year there was a call for proposals for development cooperation projects aimed at vulnerable groups. The Dutch government’s decision to reserve funds for this project is highly important. It means a continuation of the ‘Dutch approach’ within international AIDS relief where access to prevention and care in combination with the decriminalization of drug use, homosexuality and sex work is central. This is the only way gay men, people who use drugs and prostitutes can get the care they need.
A good example of this care is the integrated needle exchange program for injecting drug users. Many HIV infections are prevented as a result. The great success of the Dutch approach is recognized internationally.
Vulnerable groups are 10 to 20 times more likely to become infected with HIV than the general population. Only 8% has access to prevention, care, HIV treatment and support.
Many countries have legislation that makes access to care difficult or impossible. Examples include laws that make homosexuality a criminal offence or ones that are used to prosecute sex workers.
Offering HIV/AIDS care developed for and by these vulnerable groups must therefore go hand in hand with political pressure to change such legislation. This is precisely the aim of this program. It is also aimed at partners of gay men, drug users and sex workers. Because of the taboo related to homosexuality, in many countries men also have a relationship with a woman or are married.
The program will be run in 16 countries: Georgia, Kirghizstan, Tadzhikistan, Ukraine, Botswana, Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil, Costa Rica and Ecuador.
The program builds on work carried out in recent years. This work can now be continued and expanded. This new program will involve a lot more collaboration in order to be as effective and efficient as possible.
Gaps in existing projects will also be tackled. For example, most prevention programs along ‘truck routes’ in Africa are aimed at drivers. Until now, they have not benefited sex workers. This has meant that a great many infections still take place along these routes.
The Dutch program will be carried out by seven organizations: Aids Fonds/STI AIDS Netherlands, Aids Foundation East-West, COC, Global Network of People living with HIV, Health Connections International, Mainline and Schorer.
Together with 102 partner organizations in the 16 countries listed, they will ensure that in the coming years 400,000 gay and bisexual men, transsexuals, people who use drugs and sex workers get access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and other support.
New Report Shows Major AIDS Funders Fail to Track Investments for Gay Men and Transgender People
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) just released Tinzweiwo (Hear Our Plea) on YouTube. Tinzweiwo was the 15-minute documentary submitted to Zimbabwe's Constitutional Select Committee in February 2010 advocating for the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in Zimbabwe's new constitution. At the time, GALZ organised an Indaba that resulted in a plan of action and draft resolution declaring that sexual orientation and gender identity are integral to every person’s dignity and humanity.
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) says that it is outraged by the way that the country's media has targeted homosexuality in its reporting on the case of a police officer accused of sodomising his brother’s ten-year-old son.
Assistant Inspector Obert Magebede (38) was arrested in Harare last week after his nephew reported the alleged abuse to police.
"There has been a trend in the media to equate sodomy with rape,” said the organisation.
“This is alarming because it promotes the dangerous myth that homosexual men are automatically rapists and abusers of children."
GALZ condemned the actions of the police officer but said that the country’s sodomy laws incorrectly lump gay people with rapists. It noted that the officer has been charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault instead of rape.
"There is no distinction under Zimbabwean law between consensual same sex conduct, which GALZ believes should be decriminalised, and enforced sodomy that should be re-termed rape."
It added: "Thinking on sodomy in Zimbabwean society is muddled and the issues need to be clarified in order that justice be done.
“Sodomy per se is not wrong or harmful to society but rape, sexual abuse, physical violence, abuse of authority and sexual relations between adults and minors are criminal acts and it is correct that they be punishable by law."
The organisation blamed cultural taboos around sex in Zimbabwean society for not permitting children to be properly informed about sexuality and the dangers of sexual predators.
It also called for a review of sodomy laws by decriminalising consensual sodomy and replacing the term 'enforced sodomy' with rape.
"Only then can justice be done in this country," said GALZ.
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