JOHANNESBURG - South Africas official opposition has slammed the mooted appointment of a Robert Mugabe supporter as the countrys ambassador to Uganda.
Like the Zimbabwean president, journalist Jon Qwelane is an admitted homophobe, and the Democratic Alliance (DA) said his appointment could be seen as a tacit endorsement of the repressive stance Uganda is taking on homosexuality. Qwelane’s deeply prejudiced views have been aired for all to see in the Sunday Sun (a weekly newspaper). In one column during July 2008, for instance, he praised Robert Mugabe for his “unflinching and unapologetic stance over homosexuals”; another time, in October 2006, he wrote about how he would “condemn and disown” his own family members if they turned out to be gay, DA national spokesperson, Lindiwe Mazibuko, told The Zimbabwean this week.
Mugabe has over the years spewed bile on gays and lesbians, who has described as worse than pigs. Being gay or lesbian is punishable in Zimbabwe. DA is deeply concerned that the mooted appointment of Qwelane as South African ambassador to Uganda will damage South Africa’s credibility internationally as a country which promotes tolerance and human rights. The Ugandan government is in the process of installing the death penalty for homosexual acts, and the DA is of the opinion that the appointment of Qwelane would not take into account the serious nature of this. Instead of sending an admitted homophobe to Uganda, South Africa should be making an effort to demonstrate its disapproval of this policy. Mazibuko said the DA hoped that President Jacob Zuma would not reconsider Qwelane as an ambassadorial candidate.