Tense standoff as LGBTIQA+ community stage protest at Prof Lumumba’s EFF lecture at UCT

A tense standoff ensued between LGBTQIA+ members and EFF members in front of the Sarah Baartman Hall at UCT. Protests by LGBTQIA+ groups at UCT this afternoon over a guest lecture by Professor Patrick Lumumba from Uganda known for his homophobic stance and sentiments. Photographer: Armand Hough / African News Agency (ANA)

A tense standoff ensued between LGBTQIA+ members and EFF members in front of the Sarah Baartman Hall at UCT. Protests by LGBTQIA+ groups at UCT this afternoon over a guest lecture by Professor Patrick Lumumba from Uganda known for his homophobic stance and sentiments. Photographer: Armand Hough / African News Agency (ANA)

Published Jul 24, 2023

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There was a tense standoff between members of the LGBTQIA+ community and EFF supporters ahead of the party’s 10th anniversary lecture, which was headlined by controversial academic Professor Patrick Lumumba at the Sarah Baartman Hall at the University of Cape Town.

The LGBTQIA community, staff and students had been protesting against the EFF’s decision to invite the alleged homophobic Kenyan scholar, Lumumba, after he controversially supported an anti-homosexuality bill recently passed in Uganda by President Yoweri Museveni.

The bill recommends heavy sentences, including the death penalty for homosexuality in the country.

Picture: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency (ANA)

The EFF has publicly stated it was opposed to the bill, but was criticised for inviting Lumumba. When the bill was signed, the EFF said the act had officially legalised the persecution of members of the LGBTQI± community in that country.

“The bill that has been signed by Museveni is nothing short of state-sponsored hate and homophobia,” said EFF national spokesperson Leigh-Ann Mathys in May.

A petition by UCT staff and students and the LGBTQIA+ community, addressed to top leadership at UCT, failed to have the event scrapped.

The queer community of Cape Town, the Triangle Project, Gender DynamiX and UCT staff and students, led a protest against homophobia.

EFF and LGBTQIA+ members had a heated argument outside UCT's Sarah Baartman Hall. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane/African News Agency (ANA)

They said: “Our peaceful protest objects to hate speech, transphobia and homophobia against queer Africans.

“We object to Lumumba’s media and social media statements that label same-sex relations and transgender identities as ‘unnatural’ and ‘unAfrican’, which contributes to a climate where violence against queer lives flourishes.

“We further object to the use of a publicly-funded university’s resources to host a homophobic speaker, who contributes significantly to the hate speech which harms and incites violence against queer Africans,” they said, pledging solidarity with the LGBTIQA+ Ugandans who face the death penalty and life imprisonment for being queer.

The lecture proceeded despite the protests outside, with EFF leaders Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu taking seats on stage along Lumumba.

EFF leader Julius Malema and controversial Kenyan academic Professor Patrick Lumumba. Picture: Twitter/EFF

The group said their protest was about holding the EFF accountable for “platforming a homophobic proponent of hate speech, in direct dereliction of their duty as an opposition party to uphold the Constitution of South Africa”.

This is how people reacted on social media:

— mbokodo’engasabi luthoo (@Zandii_Omnyama) July 24, 2023
— Bra Hloni (@BraHlonisky) July 24, 2023

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