Qwelane to face Equality Court

2008-12-05 12:37

Verashni Pillay

Johannesburg - The South African Human Rights Commission has announced its decision to take Jon Qwelane to court for an allegedly homophobic column.

Meanwhile the columnist told News24 on Friday that he did not know about the decision, and could not comment.

The column, "Call me names, but gay is NOT okay", appeared in the Sunday Sun on July 20.

Since then over 1 000 complaints have been laid with the Press Ombudsman and about 320 with the SAHRC about the views expressed in the column.

"The real problem, as I see it, is the rapid degradation of values and traditions by the so-called liberal influences of nowadays," Qwelane wrote in the column. "You regularly see men kissing other men in public, walking holding hands and shamelessly flaunting what are misleadingly termed their 'lifestyle' and 'sexual preferences.

Mugabe's stance

"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."

SAHRC spokesperson Vincent Moaga said the commission's response was delayed because they had to wait for Press Ombudsman Joe Thloloe to finish his investigation.

Activist groups grew impatient with the wait, and a group from the South African Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (SA Glaad), who formed in response to the column, staged a small protest outside the commission's office in Johannesburg on Thursday.

They were invited into the main boardroom and spoke to the Commission's CEO Tseliso Thipanyane, who apologised for the delay and announced the decision to take the matter to the Equality Court.

This came after Thloloe's finding that while the columnist was not guilty of hate speech, he had fallen "foul of the press code".

He said in August that it was "unlikely" that the column would lead to violence against gays and lesbians, according to a Beeld report at the time.

But the SAHRC has deemed the column hurtful speech and is hoping the court case will set a precedent, specifically for homophobia.

He also condemned Qwelane's disregard for the commission.

Pre-empting the reaction, Qwelane wrote in his column: "Please tell the Human Rights Commission that I totally refuse to withdraw or apologise for my views. I will write no letters to the commission either, explaining my thoughts."

Criminal offence

"It's a criminal offence to ridicule and insult the HRC," said Moaga.

SA Glaad's spokesperson Cobus Fouries said the organisation was ecstatic about the decision, calling the column "a complete injustice" to those it insulted.

Moaga said no date had been fixed for the matter to appear in court.

The Equality Court deal with issues such as hate speech, racism, unfair discrimination and other forms of injustice. It can grant a number of "remedies" including an unconditional apology, restraining an unfair discriminatory practice and payment of a fine to an appropriate organisation.

- News24