SA SOAPIE AT WAR WITH CULTURE

Source: Sydney Masinga (News 24.com)

Nelspruit - 25 January 2010: The Pan Africanist Youth Congress of Azania (Payco) has come under fire from human rights and gay and lesbian organisations for its statement calling for the abolishment of homosexual practices.

In the statement released on Monday, the league said the SABC1 soapie Generations has "declared war with African cultures and practices" and that "Africa is not the home of gays and lesbians". 

In an interview with African Eye News Service on Wednesday, league president Pitso Mphasha said all the structures within the PAC were opposed to homosexuality.

"We are saying to hell with the SA constitution for giving rights to gays and lesbians. Homosexuality is totally immoral and there is no place for gays and lesbians here," said Mphasha.

"Gays and lesbians in Africa are confused people who have been mentally colonised by Western imperialists who make them abandon their own cultures," he said.

Promoting evil

Mphasha said before the constitution was approved in 1996, PAC members in parliament spoke out against the inclusion of rights for gays and lesbians but �they were overpowered by the ANC majority�.

He said his office would write an official letter to the producers of Generations to "stop promoting evil and un-African practices�.

�Generations is condoning homosexuality and indoctrinating Africans with nonsense,� added Mphasha. 

An activist from Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action, Kamohelo Malinga, said it was time that the congress embraced humanity in all its forms.

"Across the African continent we find a wealth of evidence of same-sex practices and relationships. These range from a 2000-year-old rock painting depicting male-male sex by the Bushmen, the original inhabitants of the region that makes up modern-day Zimbabwe. This and other evidence contradict the league's uninformed opinion that homosexuality is at odds with African culture and tradition," said Malinga.

"History also tells us that there were marriage-like ceremonies between Zulu men in Mkhumbane (Durban) in the 1940s and '50s," she said.

The general secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign, Vuyiseka Dubula, said the organisation was disturbed by Mphasha's comments.

Diversity

"The constitution recognises that everyone must be treated equally. Gay men and women have the same right to live in a respectful and free society. Africa is a home for everyone. The homosexuality in Generations shows the diversity of our nation. There is nothing un-African about the soapie." 

Dubula said everyone, including the PAC, had to learn to tolerate diversity in South Africa and Africa, because of the country and continent's wide variety of cultural practices.

"We have seen countries like Uganda using policies to marginalise the rights of gays and lesbians, and it is disturbing to learn that the league is trying to do the same in democratic SA. They are homophobic and wrong," Dubula said.

SA Human Rights Commission spokesperson Vincent Moaga said the statement "should not be tolerated because it confuses and divides the nation".

"This is more like hate speech and it will be investigated if we receive a formal complaint," said Moaga.