Open letter to King Zwelithini: iLIVE

Good day Your Majesty. You may not know me, and I doubt if you ever will. I am someone’s son, I have a mother and a father. I am someone’s brother, and an uncle. I am a law abiding, tax paying, hardworking citizen of South Africa, and a proud resident of KwaZulu-Natal. I am also, according to you, rotten.

Your Majesty, do you know how many women were subjected to Corrective Rape within our province last year? I fear we will never know the true number, as most of these cases go unreported due to fear and family loyalty.

May I ask, do you condone this behaviour? After all, it is directed at women whom you have declared to be rotten. And are you aware how many homosexual men are attacked, beaten up, chased from their family homes and marginalised every year in KZN?

Again, we see so few of these attacks reported; although every rotten gay in KZN will know someone this has happened to. And if you will allow me one more question, your majesty, do you know what the suicide rate is amongst young homosexuals?

These are young men and women who can no longer live with the shame forced upon them by a community that fails to accept them for who they are. Young men and women who fear losing their families, and would rather die than see their parents reject them.

These are young men and women who are not allowed to accept themselves. I know this, as I was once almost one of them, seriously considering suicide. These are the young men and women who now have to hear that even their King rejects them, calls them rotten. I wonder Your Majesty, will you speak at their funerals?

I am not Zulu, but I come from a culture that shares with your own a strong pride in all that is deemed manly. I too pride myself in being a man, I played Rugby with my friends, talk normally and wear normal clothes.

I do not molest children, rape unsuspecting heterosexual men, or prance around in a dress. All that makes me rotten according to you is the fact that I love a person of the same sex as myself, and that we have been sharing a wonderful life together for 5 years.

Yes your Majesty, I am not Zulu, but I have had the opportunity to work with many homosexual men and women who are. People who live in fear of what might happen in their communities if people find out.

I have seen the tears, listened to the stories of not being allowed to see siblings. I have seen the damage homophobia does to people, and I can no longer be silent.

Your Majesty. You are a Public official, your upkeep as well as that of your family comes from our tax money. You, just like me, are bound by the constitution of this great country, a country that has given me rights very few other homosexuals in the world have.

You have a responsibility to enhance the well-being of your people, even the ones you do not agree with. You cannot promote hate. You cannot promote intolerance. Not even you can reject my rights under the Constitution.

I therefore urge you to publicly withdraw your statements regarding homosexuals. Don’t do it for me. Do it for that young man who now lives with shame after being called rotten by his king. Do it for the young woman who has been raped for loving another woman.

Do it, because your Majesty, it is the right thing to do. Do it, because the next person you call rotten, might even be your own child.

Do it, and who knows, we might meet after all, when you come to my wedding.