OPINIONISTA: Invoking culture or religion to harm others can never be justified

I met Jonathan in 1997 in Kampala, Uganda. At the time, I was a lecturer at the University of Western Cape and had travelled with the UWC moot court team to participate in the All Africa Human Rights Moot Court competition at Makerere University.

At some point, a tall, reed-thin man in his late twenties – wearing a crisp white shirt, formal pants, and formal leather shoes – pulled up a plastic chair next to me and introduced himself as Jonathan. He worked as a food and beverages manager at a five-star hotel in the city and was studying part-time towards a management degree. Jonathan had high cheekbones and prominent teeth and as we talked and joked, he often touched his face with his long, elegant, fingers.

It would be a lie to claim that I often think about Jonathan, but when I read last week that the Ugandan government may be planning to reintroduce the death penalty to punish “homosexuality”, he was the first person I thought about. Maybe I am naïve, but I suspect most people would find it more difficult to argue that somebody deserves to die for no other reason than that he or she desires consensual sex and intimacy with another adult of the same sex, when that person has a name, a history, a face – somebody like Jonathan, with his crisp white shirt, beautiful hands, and easy smile.

In a heterogeneous society like ours, it is important for the law to respect different cultures and different religions and beliefs . The devastating impact of colonialism on indigenous South African culture adds further urgency and weight to the demand that culture be respected and protected. It is therefore a mistake to dismiss the claims of individuals who argue they are acting in accordance with their religious or cultural beliefs and the law should not punish them for doing so.

You mean the way anc eff does

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