MK Party Growing, SA LGBT+ Should Worry

The South African queer community is so relaxed while a political party of a former statesman who has publicly demonstrated his strong dislike of the community is growing exponentially. 

This does not come as a surprise though as the community is often ignorant on political issues that could potentially affect their lives. This was in full display when the National Health Insurance Bill was in the process of being signed into law. There were no vocal voices from this community publicly expressing how the passing of the bill could improve the access of healthcare services for our people. And that is happening again with the stalling of the Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill. Our people are quite and not making noise even one equivalent to a scream of a mouse. 

We are simple not bothered. 

Here are the reason why as an LGBTQIA+ person living in South Africa you should be a bit worried about the growth of the MK Party;

Former President Jacob Zuma disapproves of our community. This is a well documented fact. And it appears that he is quite influential in the party. Its his yard after all. He can do whatever he likes. During his campaign for the 2024 national elections he said that, its madness that South Africa legalized same-sex marriages, and that, if elected into power, his party would change all of that. 

One of the policies of the political party is to change the constitution of the country. Apparently they are not pleased with the current form of the constitution. The narrative that is being pushed in the media is that, they want it to be in a form that would respond to issues faced by the marginalized population groups such as the women, black and colored people.

A survey done years back revealed that majority of  South African citizens are keeping up with homosexuality out of respect for the human rights. This could be correct considering how conservative our country is. So in simple words, they are not accepting of our community. 

Since the COVID-19 years the African leaders have been defiant from ways originating from the Western countries. And one of those things included the re-looking at the concept of human rights. They have infused their ways of living, traditions and values in their definition of the concept. This was pretty evident when the Ghana government passed an anti-homosexuality law. When people who were in support of the bill were told that they were stepping on other people's rights, they simple responded that, what is considered human rights by the UN, may not be seen as such in Africa. 

Those four points should signal a warning.