THOUGHTLEADER: Dear Netball SA, allowing Uganda to participate in the World Cup makes you part of the problem – OP – ED IN THE DAILY MAVERIC

Guest: Mpho Buntse - Queer activist currently serving as national
head of communication for Embrace Diversity Movement and leader of
the ANCWL LGBTIQ+ Desk. – 079 831 8429
Dear Netball South Africa,
As the countdown to the Netball World Cup that you are hosting this July and
August continues, I am writing to you to express my concern about Uganda’s
participation in the event.
While Uganda’s netball team is ranked eighth in the world and second on the
continent, the Ugandan government is deliberately stripping its citizens of their
human rights. The escalating persecution of LGBTQIA+ people in Uganda calls
upon all of us to get off our spectator chairs and proactively do something to
provide solidarity to the Ugandan LGBTQIA+ community.
It is embarrassing that the president of Netball SA, Cecilia Molokwane, is
humbled and filled with extreme joy by the fact that Uganda’s games are selling
out ahead of the spectacle.
Molokwane and her Netball SA collective seem to be ignorant of the
geopolitical issues of the day. If they were not, they would be privy to our
current struggle and solidarity efforts with the abuse and disregard of human
rights in Uganda, which could potentially lead to loss of lives.
I appeal to Netball SA’s sense of logic and reasoning. At a time when the world
is looking for solutions that will see Uganda drop this law, you can potentially
add to the much-needed pressure meant to agitate President Yoweri Museveni
to use his veto power not to sign this bill into law.
The matter of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill is currently a subject of
international scrutiny and cause for concern for many sovereign governments,
diplomatic communities, as well as global corporates. This pushback is mainly
influenced by the urgency to get Uganda’s government to drop this draconian
law.
The bill approved by Uganda has far-reaching impacts on the safety of the
LGBTQIA+ community in that country and seems to show a ripple effect to
influence similar legal reforms in other conservative African countries, as we
have seen with the case in the Kenyan parliament.