South Africa is rightfully proud of its Constitution. It is hailed as one of the most rights-respecting in the world. It was also the first in the world, and still one of very few, to explicitly prohibit unfair discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
As the health minister of the time, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, told the UN World Conference on Women in 1995: "After the long history of discrimination in South Africa, we decided that, when we were the government, we would not discriminate against any group of persons, no matter how small their proportion in the population."
South Africa went on to enact laws and policies to promote and protect the rights of lesbians and gay men. In a series of landmark cases, the Constitutional Court struck down colonial-era sodomy laws, affirmed the legal recognition of lesbian and gay partnerships in immigration and in pension laws, and opened the rights and benefits of marriage to couples of the same sex.
South Africa offered hope to a group of people who had been marginalised, murdered, raped and reviled simply on the basis of their sexual orientation. And, for a short while, it seemed that the struggle for equality might be won. The new legislation drew applause from around the world, and gay-rights activists in countries such as India drew on the South African example in their own struggles for greater equality.
But homophobia was never far below the surface in the new South Africa. And it remains rampant in Africa today.
While South Africa was debating its progressive constitution, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe began a decade-long homophobic campaign, calling gays and lesbians "people without rights". Leaders from Nujoma, in Namibia, to Arap Moi, in Kenya, echoed the elderly despot, voicing views that were bigoted and sometimes bordered on incitement to violence.
And even South Africa is now showing worrying signs that the values expressed in its constitution are under threat when it comes to the rights of lesbians and gays.
Before he became president, Jacob Zuma publicly admitted that, as a young man, he had not been averse to slapping around gay men. Though he apologised for that, rather belatedly, he also offered a troubling justification - indicating that, at that time, homosexuality was "just not African".
It seems that many other African leaders share this view.
In April, President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi signed legislation criminalising consensual homosexual conduct, despite the Burundian senate's overwhelming rejection of the bill.
In August, Senegalese Prime Minister Soulayemane Ndene Ndiaye deplored the "proliferation of homosexuality" in Senegal and invited religious leaders and all believers to fight it.
In May 2008, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh threatened to "cut off the head" of any homosexual in his country.
None of these leaders seems to understand that homosexuality has always been part of African society, as it has everywhere else. It was just less visible and tolerated in Africa.
In Uganda, where homosexual activity was already criminalised, and prejudice is widespread, a ruling party MP, David Bahati, has tabled a new "anti-homosexuality bill" in parliament, which forbids the "promotion of homosexuality" and imposes the death penalty for what it calls "aggravated homosexuality."
At times like these, the reaction of international leaders becomes significant.
Words are important, but actions speak louder. Do you turn a blind eye to this kind of barbaric legislation or do you take a public stand against it? When Zuma was considering who to appoint as our next High Commissioner to Uganda, he would have been aware of Bahati's bill and its proposed assault on a vulnerable minority group.
But his intention to appoint Jon Qwelane to the role must raise alarm among advocates of inclusion and tolerance in South Africa, Uganda and the continent.
Qwelane is well known for his outspoken views. He has taken on many of South Africa's sacred cows, for which he has won both admiration and disapproval.
No doubt Qwelane thought that he was doing the same when he penned a column about his abhorrence of gays and lesbians in August 2008.
The column, published in the Sunday Sun, was titled "Call me names, but gay is NOT okay ." In it, he lauded Mugabe's "unflinching and unapologetic stance over homosexuals," wished aloud for a South African politician with "the balls" to change the South African Constitution's provisions on this issue, and likened homosexuality to bestiality.
Though Qwelane, as a journalist and commentator, has no particular obligation to uphold the values of the Constitution, Zuma has sworn to do so. Qwelane, if he accepts the ambassadorship, will have to make the same promise to protect and defend the rights of all South Africans and the Constitution.
At home, the Constitution is a guide to the values South Africans want to live by. It should also be a guide to the values promoted and protected in South Africa's foreign policy.
Qwelane's comments in 2008 suggest that he is neither up to the job of High Commissioner in Kampala nor right for the job. Surely Zuma can find better flag-bearers?
- Gerntholtz is the director of the women's rights division, and Nath is a researcher in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender division, of Human Rights Watch
