South Africa’s social liberalism is sneeringly dismissed by its neighbours as the fatal consequence of the people of the south having accepted a “Western-style” human rights-based Constitution. And despite our laws against homophobic discrimination and our legalisation of same-sex marriage, South Africa is by no means the gay paradise many believe it to be.
Already in the 1970s on Robben Island, Nelson Mandela and Ahmed Kathrada had accepted the argument that prejudice against sexual orientation was as unacceptable as sexism and racism, as a result of their encounter with Salim Essop (who had been arrested with Ahmed Timol).
But while the middle class enjoy their same-sex rights (rights, it should be noted, which they…