Homophobic diplomat fined
South Africa’s ambassador to Uganda, Jon Qwelane, has been fined nearly $15,000 by the Johannesburg Equality Court for inciting homophobia through a column he wrote while working for South Africa’s Sunday Sun newspaper.
“You regularly see men kissing other men in public, walking holding hands and shamelessly flaunting what are misleadingly termed their lifestyle and sexual preferences,” Qwelane complained in the 2008 column.
“There could be a few things I could take issue with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, but his unflinching and unapologetic stance over homosexuals is definitely not among those.
“Please tell the Human Rights Commission that I totally refuse to withdraw or apologise for my views … Quite frankly I don’t give a damn: wrong is wrong! I do pray that some day a bunch of politicians … will muster the balls to rewrite the constitution of this country, to excise those sections which give licence to men ‘marrying’ other men, and ditto women. Otherwise, at this rate, how soon before some idiot demands to ‘marry’ an animal, and argues that this constitution ‘allows’ it?”
The South African Human Rights Commission brought the case against Qwelane.
Qwelane’s appointment to the diplomatic post was widely seen as a sign of diminishing support for GLBT rights from the ruling African National Congress under President Jacob Zuma.
