One of Swaziland’s most vocal pro-democracy groups has
called for a new law to ban hate speech against homosexuals.
The call by the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) follows
a debate in the Swazi House of Assembly in which MP Aaron Sotsha Dladla called
for gays and lesbians to be outlawed in the kingdom.
Dladla said a new law should be put in place to deal with
‘this mushrooming anti-social’ behaviour of gays and lesbians. He went on to
make a number of disparaging comments about homosexuals.
The Swazi Observer
reported him saying, ‘We must first pass a law that will ban this practice
before it takes root. Anyone found breaking that law should be dealt with
severely.’
The SSN responded in a statement by calling MPs and members
of Swaziland’s ruling elite ‘ghastly hypocritical’ because, it said, some of
them were themselves closet homosexuals. It also claimed a prominent member of
the Swazi Royal Family was a lesbian.
Gays and lesbians are routinely victimised in Swaziland.
In November 2011, Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze, the Minister of Justice and
Constitutional Affairs, said Swaziland would not give human rights to gay
people, because they did not exist in the kingdom.
He was responding to criticism of Swaziland by a United
Nations (UN) working group on human rights that said the kingdom should enact
equality laws for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people.
A group called HOOP (House of Our Pride), a support group
for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Inter-sex (LGBTI) people, reported
to the UN, ‘It is a common scene for LGBTI to be verbally insulted by
by-passers in public places. [There is] defamatory name calling and people
yelling out to see a LGBTI person’s reproductive part are some of the issues
facing LGBTI in Swaziland.’
‘Faith houses have been known to discriminate against LGBTI, advocating for the alienation of LGBTI in the family and society, while
maintaining that these LGBTI are possessed by demons.’
HOOP also said LGBTI people were often discriminated
against at work and there had been well known cases of this.
In one of the first reports of its kind detailing sexual
orientation discrimination in Swaziland, HOOP revealed, ‘LGBTI are hugely
discriminated against in the community, as they are not recognized at community
meetings and their points are often not minuted at these meetings nor are they
allowed to take part in community services.’
Police often ridiculed LGBTI people if they reported they
had been victims of violent crime. ‘A good example of such practices is in the
on-going case of a well-known LGBTI in Swaziland, Patricia Dludlu, who is
currently in incarceration for a different offence but is constantly ridiculed
by the media and police because of her sexuality.’
See also
GAY PREJUDICE RIFE IN SWAZILAND
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