WASHINGTON — A Zimbabwean gay rights advocate said he expects the government to once again crack down on gay rights groups ahead of July’s presidential elections.
Report by Washington Blade
“I am told President Robert Mugabe’s party, Zanu PF, is going to use the issue of homosexuality as one of their campaign tools,” the activist, who asked the Blade not to publish his name because he remains afraid of potential reprisals against him, said.
He added his brother and most other Zimbabweans who oppose Mugabe will ultimately vote for him because of his strong opposition to homosexuality.
“I strongly believe that they will use this issue to threaten the LGBT people in Zimbabwe. And they will do everything in their power to make sure that LGBT people are punished.”
The activist, who is a member of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, which is a group of gay Zimbabweans founded in 1990 as a support organisation, spoke to the Blade ahead of a scheduled March 16 referendum on a new constitution that includes an amendment that specifically bans same-sex marriage.
The State Department last August criticised the Zimbabwean government’s crackdown on LGBT rights activists after police arrested 44 GALZ members inside the group’s office in Harare, the country’s capital. The organisation said authorities confiscated computers and pamphlets from the same office a few days earlier.
The activist fled to neighbouring South Africa where he remained for more than a month.
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“It was difficult because I was not doing what I was supposed to do when I was home,” he said. “So I went back.”
Mugabe in 1995 described gay men and lesbians who showcased at the annual International Book Festival in Harare as “dogs and pigs”.
Former President Canaan Banana three years later received a 10-year prison sentence after his conviction on 11 charges of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault against his former male employees.
The activist said Zimbabweans had been reluctant to publicly discuss homosexuality until Mugabe’s 1995 speech.
“President Mugabe was the first person in Zimbabwe to castigate the gay people and the lesbians,” he said.
Aside from the State Department, Amnesty International and other international human rights organisations have criticised the Zimbabwean government for cracking down on LGBT advocacy groups. The activist stressed he has not heard Mugabe “state anything against” President Obama.
He also applauded former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for urging the Zimbabwean government to end its crackdown on GALZ. “To us that was a very powerful statement coming from this country,” he said, noting he feels Mugabe heeded the warning.
“That was the time when our members were arrested.
“That was the time when our members were being followed to their homes.
“It just stopped miraculously because soon after that no one was arrested.”
