Scrap visas for Ugandans pleads LGBTQIA+ activist

Papa De was speaking on the sidelines of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) march to the Ugandan High Commission, led by party president Julius Malema, against that country’s anti-homosexuality bill. 

“You say that South Africa is a queer haven? Queer people in Uganda are being suffocated by a homophobic system and you have not said a word. Please open the borders and ease the asylum process to a dignified one that doesn’t see queer people waiting from eight to 10 years to get their papers,” said Papa De. 

Their sentiments were echoed by Malema when he addressed dozens of picketers outside the high commission before EFF treasurer general, Omphile Maotwe, read and handed over the memorandum of demands to Ugandan military attaché, Fred Tolit. 

Malema says their call to end borders on the continent is not about access control but ending visa requirements for citizens of other African countries. 

“There must not be visas amongst us. So many countries in the world come to South Africa without visas, but when we say the Ugandans must come to South Africa without visas, you xenophobic people say they are not welcome here,” he said. 

“Yet there are countries of white people who come here without a visa. Now [they] are speaking about going back home and being arrested, perhaps even being killed, yet you are just watching and doing nothing.” 

Papa De warned the bill has far-reaching implications outside the borders of their home country.   

They say Ugandans living in South Africa are already enacting it. 

“Someone who is a refugee here in Cape Town told me that their Ugandan landlord from Cape Town threw them out because of the bill.” 

Tolit received the document and promised to ensure it reached the relevant authorities. 

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