By Norm Dixon
JOHANNESBURG — The Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW), one of the South Africa's two main gay and lesbian rights groups, endorsed the African National Congress in the elections.
GLOW activist Simon Nkoli told Green Left Weekly said the organisation made the decision "for the simple reason that the ANC has been consulting with GLOW for some time" on gay and lesbian rights issues and that the ANC was responsible for a clause protecting the rights of lesbians and gay men being included in the interim constitution.
The ANC has been consulting with GLOW since before the ANC was unbanned, Nkoli said. "In 1987, the first statement came through Thabo Mbeki in London. His statement was quite positive of lesbian and gay people.
"The very same year, Ruth Mompati uttered a very homophobic statement, saying that homosexuality is not an African issue. The ANC made her apologise for that. In 1989, Albie Sachs, who was busy drafting the ANC's constitutional guidelines, wrote letters to both OLGA [the Cape Town-based Organisation of Lesbians and Gay Activists] and GLOW, asking us to draft a document on why the ANC should accept lesbian and gay rights. When Sachs returned from exile in 1992, the first thing he did was consult lesbians and gay people."
When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Nkoli told Green Left Weekly, he wrote an open letter to ask the ANC leader his attitude to gay and lesbian rights. "He gave an assurance that gay and lesbian people are part of the oppressed in South Africa, and therefore there was no way he would reject them."
Tokyo Sexwale, the ANC's candidate for premier of the PWV province, was recently quoted in a newspaper as saying that homosexuality was a "human distortion". GLOW contacted him, and he came to the organisation to explain, Nkoli said.
Sexwale assured GLOW he did not say that, explaining he advocated lesbian and gay rights at the ANC conference that adopted them. Sexwale was also a leading advocate at the World Trade Centre for the inclusion in the interim constitution of the clause that protects gays and lesbians against discrimination. Sexwale showed GLOW the letter he wrote to the newspaper that had misquoted him. The newspaper did not print it. "We were very convinced and quite happy after that", Nkoli said.
The ANC Youth League has been inviting GLOW to its meetings and other functions for a long period. During the annual gay and lesbian rights marches that have been organised by GLOW and OLGA over recent years, only the ANC has sent messages of support.
Nkoli said that when GLOW members discussed which party should be endorsed for the elections, the ANC was overwhelmingly supported. No other organisation came close. "The DP [Democratic Party] is claiming it has been fighting for gay rights. We told the DP we didn't know. If they were, they didn't consult with lesbian and gay organisations."
Unlike the ANC, the DP has never sent messages of support, or participated in, the annual lesbian and gay rights marches. Many of GLOW's members are also active in the ANC.
GLOW believes that the ANC has the best policies to deal with South Africa's AIDS crisis. Senior ANC leaders have told GLOW that the new government will fund many new projects to control and eliminate the spread of AIDS. "They have a very good policy on AIDS. They only have to implement those policies as soon as they come to power", Nkoli said.
Nkoli explained that GLOW's role was to "represent the interests of lesbian and gay people, and we act on their behalf". In a statement released on March 3 to explain the organisation's endorsement of the ANC, GLOW said it had aligned itself with the broader democratic movement since its inception and regarded the struggle for a non-racial and non-sexist society as indivisible from the struggle against homophobia and discrimination against gay men and lesbians.
Write to GLOW at PO Box 23297, Joubert Park, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2044.