Contrasts

Living in Africa can be… to put it mildly… confusing. When it comes to peoples’ rights, especially. There just seems to be one heck of a contrast. Let me be a bit less general. I live in Africa, but I’ve never lived in any other country than South Africa. Now South Africa has a very progressive constitution, which was put into place in around 1994, after the fall of apartheid. Let’s put it this way, because we have people of all colours and creeds living here, and 11 official languages.





Three founding provisions of the constitution are:

• Non-racialism and non-sexism.
• Supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of law.
• The provision that lays down the country's democratic philosophy by stipulating "universal adult suffrage, a national common voters roll, regular elections and a multi-party system of democratic government, to ensure accountability, responsiveness and openness".

The Constitution states that everyone has the right to use the language and participate in the cultural life of his or her choice. The Constitution provides for 11 official languages.

Among the rights stipulated are those of equality, freedom of expression and association, political and property rights, housing, healthcare, education, access to information, and access to courts. And all are taken extremely seriously by the citizens of the country. There must be few places in the world where constitutional rights feature as much in public and private discourse, and there has been no hesitation in testing the provisions and implications of the Bill of Rights in the Constitutional Court (Read more).

Section 9 (3) of South Africa's Constitution expressly prohibits unfair discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

It reads:

"The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth."

(Read more).

In 2006, South Africa was the 5th country in the world (and the first in Africa) to legalise homosexual marriage.

So.. there, we have what is said to be the most progressive constitution in the world. We got it in 1994.. 18 years ago. This liberal constitituion has not been without its opposition. This year, the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa filed an application to have the protection rights regarding homosexual marriage overturned. But this application was not allowed and the rights of theLGBTI community remain protected in South Africa.

So it’s all well and good, on the legal side. But when you get to community level, not so much. And my question is about law enforcement in general. What’s the point of having all these laws and rights when they are a lot of the time not enforced? Law enforcement seems to be quite a topical issue here. Homosexuals are allowed to marry, adopt children, etc. Look part of the thing is that the statistics are blurred. Police do not differentiate between attacks on gays and attacks on anyone else, so there are no real statistics about law enforcement and gays.

In the 1990s a nationwide study was conducted which indicates however, indicates that anti-gay hate crimes represent a serious problem in South African society. On the basis of his findings, he emphasises that it is essential that South Africa should, similarly to the USA, introduce legislation to document the extent to which gays are subjected to anti-gay hate crimes and to reflect the nature of the crimes. (S)

So we have to go very much on gut feel. And my gut feel is that while we have the most progressive constitution in the world, all is not as it should be, there are under currents which ripple through this apparent façade of peace which may bubble over at some point.

We are called ‘The Rainbow Nation’. We are all supposed to get on nicely like the colours on the rainbow all sitting next to each other peacefully getting along until the end of time, and watching over the pot of gold….

Unfortunately – (maybe it’s the pot of gold that’s the problem? Maybe it attracts too many of the colours away from their purpose of providing a happier place?) I’m not sure the South Africa we have today is what people fought for all those years ago. Gay hate aside, I heard yesterday of a friend who was robbed, she had some money left in her drawer, and by the time the police had gone, that was gone too. This is not an isolated incident. Often times just seem to be in it for themselves, not for the truth and justice that was wanted. But then you start thinking that and something amazing happens – like the entire community comes together for a family in need and sorts them out for the month of December. Our place is amazing – and it has a constitution that protects us all – something to be very proud of specially when you think countries like Britain still don’t legalise gay marriage. So maybe this really IS the land of the rainbow. With contrasts. The red and the yellow contrast with the blue. The green contrasts with the indigo. The violet jars with the red. But we’re all together jostling along, and maybe one day the boundaries will become blurred and all the colours will run together so that it’s one big, happy brown with the threads and textures of the cultures interwoven.

This week was Thanksgiving in the United States, and although we do not celebrate it here, we do often take the chance to be thankful for what we have. So whichever country you’re in take the time to be thankful for what you have. Not what you might have, what you want, don’t think about what your friends and family have which you might want. Just be thankful for what you have. Of course, today is Black Friday, it’s no longer Thanksgiving – sort of a contrast isn’t it – giving thanks like that on the Thursday for the things you already have and then rushing off on Friday to buy more. Anyway it’s the start of the Christmas shopping period in the states, so take care!