What a beautiful and colourful Heritage Day this is in the City of Johannesburg’s biggest township, Soweto – the heart of Joburg!
We are blessed to be here today at the 18th Annual Soweto Pride and March in celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community. It is equally fitting that we mark this event on Heritage Day, where many have had to find new homes, families and communities signalling the creation of a new heritage for a new generation. This is the diversity that drives Joburg!
Joburg is a City where we should be able to be who we want to be, wherever we might be across its 7 Regions!
Every freedom won and every advancement of the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community is a victory for all of us. We cannot claim true freedom when one of us is still oppressed.
It seems unreal to recall a time when none of this would have been possible.
It seems unimaginable that politicians would stand together on a platform like this to stand with and for
On December 1, 2006, the South African Government passed the Union Bill, which legalised same-sex marriage, making us the first African nation to do so.
I am certainly proud to be an ally of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Programme Director,
The City of Johannesburg is a beacon for LGBTQIA+ Pride and progress.
Through the Targeted Beneficiaries Unit in the City of Johannesburg a number of interventions are being implemented in accordance with the City’s Gender Policy of 2021.
Some of the interventions include:
● Economic development interventions that include entrepreneurship, job readiness, access to market through development finance Institutions.
● Skills development interventions including accredited and non-accredited training.
● Psychosocial interventions for victims and survivors of sexual orientation-based violence and hate crimes as well as their families.
These services extend to the young and LGBTQIA+ community who are battling with discrimination and the difficulties of ‘coming out’.
I am also pleased to announce that to-date, Council has approved the terms of reference for the establishment of the LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee, which will provide sound, evidence-based advice to the City in respect of the implementation of these programmes.
Programme Director
As Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg and on behalf of the Multi-Party Government, we are committed to building a Johannesburg that is inclusive and protects the rights of the LGBTIQA+ community.
As the first democratically elected black woman to be elected to the highest office in the country’s economic hub, I am well aware of the barriers that exist when you seem to be ‘different’. With me in this Office, I can assure you that the work we are doing to repair and rebuild the City will include the LBGQTIA+ community and other vulnerable groups.
I have a job to ensure that those who come after me, and those who have entrusted me with this mission, do not face the same struggles that I do. You have a friend, ally, and warrior of your cause – our cause – in me!
Programme Director,
When the Joburg Multi-Party Government came into office, we formulated key drivers that would inform the work we do within the City, for and with residents.
These drivers are known as the 7 Mayoral Priorities. Among those priorities is Priority 3 which speaks to building a caring City, where the needs of vulnerable residents such as the LBGTQIA+ community, women, children, and people with disabilities are top of mind in all that we do.
We will make sure that there is improved healthcare, drug recovery process programmes, support for the homeless, food security programmes and dignified old age homes, to name but a few programmes.
When we talk about a caring City, we also talk about Priority 5 of building an inclusive City, where across Joburg, residents, regardless of sex, gender, race, or class, are able to access all the amenities they need to live a quality life with access to housing and job opportunities.
The LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee will ensure that your needs as a community find expression in all our policies, programmes, and Mayoral Priorities.
We have come far, and Johannesburg is undoubtedly a much better and safer place for the LGBTQIA+ community now more than ever before.
But this is not enough.
As long as members of the LGBTQIA+ community are persecuted and killed for being who they are, the fight for recognition and acceptance continues.
Even with our Constitution and inclusive laws, there are still parts of our country where coming out in the open means a death sentence.
In recent years we have tragically learned of people killed in Soweto for being openly gay.
Some of the most recent names that come to mind include:
● Brian Tootla from Slovoville
● Lerato Tambai Moloi from Naledi Extension
● Madoe Mafubedu from Orlando
● Sanna Supa from Braamfischerville
● Desiree Ntombana Mafu from Dobsonville
● Bongeka Phungula from Tladi
● Popi Qwabe from Naledi; and
● Daisy Dube from Yeoville among many others.
May we bow our heads as we remember these lives that were taken away.
Programme Director,
It is our moral duty to raise our voices and speak out against any ill-treatment of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Today let us have a moment of silence for all those that we have lost including the recent death of YOTV Presenter Lumko Johnson Leqela who contributed immensely to the fair treatment and rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Programme Director
So let us enjoy this wonderful day.
Let us have fun here because this is a celebration of our freedoms and our bright and colourful diversity.
Sisekhona! We are here and we are still here!
May God bless you and your loved ones.
ENDS.
For media queries, please contact:
Mabine Seabe
Director: Mayoral Communication
Private Office of the Executive Mayor
084 677 7851
24/09/2022
