Dear Friends
A big thank you to all those who attended the joint Coalition to End Discrimination (CoED) and Cape Town Pride protest. We had a crowd that transcended class, race, gender, age, and sexual orientation, with a united voice for equality, human rights and for the responsibility of South African society and government to work towards scrapping the Ugandan 'Anti-Homosexuality' bill.
The Coalition to End Discrimination's letter addressed to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was signed by over 1200 individuals and 48 organisations in SA. Spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Mr Malusi Magale, received the letter at the protest. Mr Magale promised to hand over the letter to the relevant authorities. CoED will ensure that we follow up on that promise and will keep you all posted.
The protest ran as a headline story on ETV's evening news where an ETV journalist explained that despite worldwide uproar over the bill, South Africa's government has remained silent on the issue. Co-coordinator of CoED Catherine Pretorius was featured on the programme discussing the issue with reporters and footage was shown of the protestors and the handover of CoED's letter to Mr Magale. The protest was also featured in Die Burger on 13 February.
On behalf of the CoED committee and Cape Town Pride, thank you to all those individuals and organisations who signed the letter, attended the protest and continue to act out against the proposed law.
Kind regards,
The CoED Committee
