Cape Town - Hours before a public lecture by Kenyan professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba as part of the EFF’s 10th anniversary celebrations, LGBTQIA+ activist organisations, students and staff protested outside the Sarah Baartman Hall at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where the lecture was to be held.
The plaza in front of the hall was the epicentre of the protest yesterday as scores of EFF members sang while facing off against many queer and solidarity activist groups who had gathered to protest against Lumumba’s lecture.
Lumumba was invited by the EFF to deliver the lecture on the progression of Pan-Africanism. Lumumba was flanked by EFF president Julius Malema inside the venue. While Lumumba was greeted by roaring cheers inside the venue, a silent vigil was held for those who had violently lost their lives due to their sexuality.
Organisations present included the SA Students Congress (Sasco) UCT, UCT Student Representative Council, Triangle Project, and Gender DynamiX, among others.
What was advertised as a public lecture saw strict control of who could enter the venue.
Gender DynamiX legal and policy officer Belinda Qaqamba said: “As a trans-led organisation, we are out here to stand in solidarity with the rest of the queer community. It’s important for us to be visible in a space where a man who has vocally, openly and overtly showed hate, and to be anti-queer and anti-trans, also someone who equates our identities to un-Africanism, so for us to be visible as African people, speaks volumes. And to show that indeed, there are queer and trans people in Africa.”
A lawyer by profession, Lumumba, 61, served as the former director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, and director of the Kenya School of Law. Lumumba has openly expressed himself as homophobic, publicly stating that sexual relations between people of the same gender were against the order of nature.
UCT associate professor Barbara Boswell said concerns were raised with UCT management through engagements, and a petition was signed by 1 000 students and staff calling for the cancellation of the lecture.
“I think it’s important that we protest against homophobic hate speech. Our Constitution forbids it and it’s important that we stick to that principle.
“It’s also disappointing that the EFF, which is an opposition party that should be protecting and safeguarding our constitutional rights, has brought this speaker to foment hatred.”
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola said the event was not a UCT event, but hosted by an external party.
“The university has noted with concern the comments that have subsequently been made by the speaker and the critical conversations that have emerged as a result, and urges the external host and the concerned parties to engage these accordingly.”
Previously, Malema was draped in the LGBTQIA+ flag at the forefront of a march by EFF members and other activists to the Uganda Embassy in Pretoria over Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill. Soon after the bill was passed, the EFF released a statement to condemn what it referred to as an inhumane bill. Lumumba has openly supported it.
EFF provincial spokesperson Wandile Kasibe said: “He’s (Lumumba) our guest. He will be speaking, reflecting on Pan Africanist ideas and other ideas that affect the continent as he always does with his lectures which are basically celebrated across the African continent… I’m aware we’re the ones who marched against the bill that was passed, but remember, we are not here to police people’s expressions.”