Pretoria - All the parliamentarians in Uganda who helped support and pass the Anti-homosexuality Bill should be ashamed of themselves, and will one day fall on the very same sword that they yield.
This was the cautionary warning sent to Uganda’s leaders by EFF leader Julius Malema as the party picketed outside the Ugandan Embassy in Pretoria yesterday.
They protested against the Anti-homosexuality Bill after South Africa celebrated Human Rights Day on March 21, while the parliament in Uganda passed the bill which criminalises same-sex relations and imposes harsh penalties on those found guilty of engaging in homosexual activity.
The bill is yet to be signed into law by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and Malema urged the president not to sign the bill as it would be akin to supporting rapists and murderers.
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— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) April 4, 2023
CIC @Julius_S_Malema addressing at the Picket Against Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill at the Ugandan Embassy
We salute you comrades for being brave and for standing firm with the LGBTQI+ community of Uganda #GayRightsAreHumanRights pic.twitter.com/nqqeqJqUOK
Speaking outside the Ugandan Embassy, Malema said the possibility existed that in future someone who disagreed with them could use the very same law to kill opponents by simply claiming that they were gay.
“This bill is anti-human because gay rights are human rights. How are you going to identify that a person is gay, what scientific methods are you going to use to determine a person is lesbian? The only thing you can do is to look at a person and out of hatred decide this one is gay or lesbian and you want to kill them. That cannot be correct.
“We are saying to Museveni to leave the people the way they are. It is not our problem or your problem, it is not a problem at all. For him and his family or those related to prominent business families will not be killed and others will, simply because they are poor.
“We say to Uganda, as long as the LGBTQI+ community is not free in Uganda, we are not free.
“As long as the people of Palestine are not free, we are not free. As long as the people of Swaziland cannot choose who is going to lead them, we are not free.”
Speaking on the atrocities being committed against the LGBTQI+ community, Malema said there was nothing “corrective” about rape as real men did not rape.
“Rape is murder. When you rape someone, you kill something in that person.
From that day that person will never live a free life because that trauma will permanently visit them.
“We are marching against rapists supported by the Ugandan government.
There is barbarism and stupidity in the whole thing.”
Ugandan national in South Africa, Mukasa King, said he did not agree with what was being passed to oppress, persecute and violate people who identified with the LGBTQI+ community.
Even before the bill was passed, he said, people in Uganda were already being attacked, killed and even thrown out of their homes for associating with the LGBTQI+ community.
King said he knew the risk of speaking out against the bill, but it could in future affect him, his children or even his grandchildren. “Ugandans are not educated enough about the LGBTQI+ community. As a result, the passing of this bill further entrenches the fears that children will be taught to identify as part of the
LGBTQI+ community. It’s scary to speak out but the stigma needs to stop.”
A memorandum was accepted by Major-General Fred Tolit, the military attaché for the embassy.
Pretoria News