Protest over Tanzania’s queer ‘witch hunt’
Homosexuality is illegal in Tanzania and anti-gay actions had escalated since President John Magufuli’s inauguration in 2015.
A small group of amandla.mobi gay rights activists protested outside the Tanzanian high commission on Friday.
Protesters were calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to publicly condemn what they call Dar es Salaam’s “assault on the civil liberties of queer Tanzanians”.
They also appealed to Ramaphosa to offer asylum to “those who are facing arrest for simply being who they are”.
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Paul Makonda [the regional commissioner of Dar es Salaam] had deployed a surveillance squad to track down queer people on social media,” said amandla.mobi spokesperson Faith Mathole.
Homosexuality is illegal in Tanzania and anti-gay actions had escalated since President John Magufuli’s inauguration in 2015, she said.
“Queer people have been forced to hide their identities and sexuality.”
Makonda recently made a statement saying “I prefer to anger those countries than to anger God”, in response to other countries’ protest at Tanzania’s gay rights record.
“Recently there had been reports that the names of 18 000 people had been handed to the Tanzanian government on suspicion of being queer,” claimed Mathole.
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“They had even gone as far as shutting down HIV clinics on the basis of them supposedly promoting homosexuality.”
“The situation in Tanzania has reached a crisis point,” said amandla.mobi campaigner Clio Koopman.
“Queers fear for their freedom.”
Koopman said “South Africans could not sit back and allow this anti-queer witch hunt to continue”.
“President Ramaphosa had acknowledged that the LGBTI community are amongst the most vulnerable and marginalised.”
She was referring to remarks Ramaphosa made in November 2017 at the Feather Awards “about the need to stop the suffering, discrimination, violence and abuse of the queer community”.
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“We must hold the president accountable for his commitments to queer rights by demanding he stand in solidarity with queer people in Tanzania.”
“We understand the pain of not being able to be ourselves. We are telling the South African government that it is their responsibility to stand up against the blatant abuse of human dignity”, she said.
Koopman urged South Africans to add their name to the campaign demanding President Ramaphosa take a public stand against the government of Tanzania on its homophobic practices.
South Africans can join the campaign on the amandla.mobi mobisite using this link https://www.amandla.mobi/tanzania_homophobia.
Photo: Reitumetse Mahope
Photo: Reitumetse Mahope
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