And the word was ... How a writer
South Africans share their stories of what it took for them to start overcoming homophobia
Freddy Mathekga holds veteran journalist Jon Qwelane in high esteem, describing him as “a prominent writer; a noble man”. Mathekga also told the Mail & Guardian of his struggle to “understand the dynamic of wider society” — homosexuality in particular.
Describing himself as an “ordinary” person, a social justice activist with a fairly ordinary history of struggling to overcome his homophobic feelings, he claims he would have been influenced by the antigay statements made by the former Sunday Sun columnist.
“You know, there are so many frustrations being young and living in the townships — exclusion from university, not being employed, all those things.
“So you end up following whatever light you see; whatever light you think you see at the end of the tunnel. Even if that ‘light’ is a newspaper article,” says the 25-year-old from Thembisa.
In his Sunday Sun column titled “Call me names, but gay is NOT okay,” Qwelane said in 2008: “Homosexuals and their backers will call me names, printable and not, for stating as I have always done my serious reservations about their ‘lifestyle and sexual preferences,’ but quite frankly I don’t give a damn: wrong is wrong!”
A central issue for Qwelane in the hate speech case against him in the high court in Johannesburg was that there needed to be a link between homophobic statements and the harm they can cause.
Although Mathekga has never read Qwelane’s column, he says: “If you’re struggling to come to terms with something and you come across a prominent writer in a prominent paper saying something like this, you would give up; give up trying to understand the dynamics of the wider society. Because if such a bigname person doesn’t really understand homosexuality or the need for social cohesion, then why should you, as this ordinary person, try understanding it? You’ll just think: ‘Oh, I’m not alone’ and just carry on with your homophobic ways and thinking.”
The court case has been years in the making. In April 2011, the Equality Court found Qwelane guilty of hate speech, ordered him to pay R100 000 to the South African Human Rights Commission and to write an unconditional apology to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.
The judgment was reversed on September 1 2011 on procedural grounds, because Qwelane had not been able to attend the hearing. He had at the time been serving as South Africa’s ambassador to Uganda, a country known for its oppressive anti-homosexuality laws.
In September 2014, the case went back to the Equality Court, sitting in the high court, and Qwelane instituted his own application to have Sections 10 (1) and 11 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act declared inconsistent with the Constitution, saying it infringed his right to freedom of expression. The two cases were consolidated.
The high court case was heard over the past two weeks after being