Africa-Press – South-Africa. The University of Cape Town (UCT) is bracing itself for protests against a planned public lecture by a controversial academic, which has unleashed the ire of staff, students and members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
On Monday evening, the EFF is set to host its 10th-anniversary celebrations at UCT’s Sarah Baartman Hall, where Kenyan pan-Africanist scholar, Professor Patrick Lumumba, will be the keynote speaker.
Lumumba, who in an interview with DigiTalk TV said homosexuals should be “cured”, is a vocal supporter of Uganda’s anti-homosexual bill, which criminalises homosexuality with harsh punishments, including the death penalty.
EFF leader Julius Malema, who led a protest outside the Ugandan embassy in Pretoria, has widely criticised the bill.
UCT has faced backlash for allowing the EFF to host the lecture on its grounds.
Last month, a petition, penned by staff and students, was issued to the university’s interim vice-chancellor, Daya Reddy, and the deputy vice-chancellor, Elelwani Ramugondo.
Several protests are expected ahead of the public lecture.
A spokesperson for the Triangle Project, Ling Sheperd, said the protest was a time to display solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community as well as everyone who had been hurt because of homophobia, transphobia and acts of bigotry.
Sheperd said Lumumba’s presence displayed hypocrisy from both the EFF and UCT – and it was a “gut punch to queer people worldwide and in Africa”.
“The EFF’s hypocrisy is as telling as UCT’s.
“UCT, oddly enough, prides itself on inclusivity and transformation, and hosting a homophobe contradicts that. Malema was draped in a pride flag in solidarity with queer Ugandans a few months ago. To flip flop to hosting a homophobe for its 10th anniversary is a glaring example of how, with Pride month, everything is rainbows and sunshine,” she said.
Sheperd said the protest was “a resistance against the EFF and UCT”.
She said attempts to engage with the EFF had been dismissed by the political party, who said the speech by Lumumba was not about the LGBTQIA+ community and that people should remain open to differences in opinion.
UCT’s spokesperson, Elijah Moholola, said the institution was aware of the demonstration, which would be held on Monday.
When asked about the university’s stance on the matter, Moholola reiterated that the event was hosted by an external party and that its management was not involved in the programme of events.
When asked about the protesters’ remarks about using publicly-funded university resources to host a “homophobic” speaker, Moholola referred News24 to a previous statement.
In the statement, UCT said: “The university has noted with concern the comments that have been made by the speaker and the critical conversations that have emerged as a result, and urges the external host to engage these accordingly.”
Asked whether any security arrangements had been implemented, Moholola said the question was “pre-emptive”.
A spokesperson for the EFF, Sinawo Thambo, said it had no problem with the dissatisfaction of protesters, and the party respected their democratic right to protest.
“We do not have any negative feelings towards them. However, it is unfortunate there was no dialogue about Lumumba’s views,” said Thambo.
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