House Chairperson, MECs and hon members, I would like to thank the Deputy Minister for the compliments on the scarf. She will find that the DA is a patriotic opposition. I would also like to thank her for a very nice speech that she gave. But I am not quite sure how to respond to and debate on it, because I agree with just about everything she said.
Instead of reviewing the comprehensive history the Deputy Minister ran us through, let me rather look at a few aspects of her department's work in Africa that she didn't deal with. Her department has nine strategic objectives. I want to deal with three of them today, especially as they relate to our foreign policy.
The first is to provide consular services to South African nationals abroad. Here I want to heartily congratulate the Deputy Minister on a job well done. I spent most of 2007 and 2008 travelling through 18 African countries on a personal mission to explore our continent. I travelled with two friends in an old truck, with a budget of less than what most of the hon members sitting here probably spent on lunch today. We made hundreds of friends all over the continent. I am pleased to report that some of the best friends we made were the diplomats and staff of our foreign missions. They were - without fail - helpful, accommodating and friendly. I must, in particular, thank the embassies in Gabon, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal for their kind assistance, and the Deputy Minister for making sure that our missions were staffed with such excellent people. The other two strategic objectives I want to deal with are the ones that concern protecting and promoting South African national interests and values and contributing to the formulation of international law and enhancing respect for its provisions. I believe that our government, led by the Deputy Minister of the Department of International Relations and Co- operation, is failing in these objectives. On the continent of Africa, these failures amount to an abandonment of moral leadership.
The fact that we have a leadership role to play on the continent is uncontested. The Minister herself has stressed this. But that this leadership role should include moral leadership is also clear to me. The father of our nation, Nelson Mandela, in 1994 promised South Africa and the world that human rights would be the light that guides our foreign affairs. Yet today these rights are left out in the dark as we have abandoned the role of moral leadership in African foreign affairs.
Let me tell you why. Last week a Malawian court sentenced Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga to 14 years' hard labour for unnatural acts and gross indecency under an Act that dated from colonial days. Their crime was that they expressed love for each other, which they committed to publicly at a same-sex ceremony in December last year. Notwithstanding the clear directive in our Constitution that no one should be discriminated against on the grounds of private, consensual, adult sexual relations, the department's silence on this matter has been deafening. And by remaining silent they failed to protect and promote South African national interests and values.
In comparison, dozens of other states and organisations have condemned the sentence. Unfortunately, our government has a proud history of failing to protect and promote principles we adhere to at home in our foreign affairs.
In 2008, a Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity was brought to the United Nations. Amongst other things, it called on states to take all the necessary measures to ensure that sexual orientation may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties. About 67 countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Gabon, Mauritius and Guinea-Bissau signed this declaration, yet South Africa - with our liberal Constitution - has not signed it. It is worth noting that the countries that opposed this declaration included such bastions of human rights as Iran, North Korea, Syria, Swaziland, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
I would appreciate the Minister's views on which side our government is on. This is because domestically we stand proud as one of only seven countries that have no official heterosexist discrimination. But our foreign policy practices urgently need to be aligned with our country's constitutional principles.
In Mauritania, Sudan and northern Nigeria, homosexuality can be punishable by death - silence from the department. Last week Zimbabwean police raided the headquarters of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe and arrested two activists who had dared to display a letter they had received that was critical of Mugabe's homophobia. They have been denied access to lawyers - no comment from the department.
In another example, in Uganda, offenders can receive a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for homosexual acts and legislation changing this to the death penalty is before their Parliament. Yet our government responds not by speaking out against this, but by sending a known homophobe, Jon Qwelane, to be our ambassador there. In just over an hour's time, the Deputy Minister will reply to this debate. I challenge her to respond to all of the concerns raised by all the speakers in this debate.
In recent days, my party's leaders have called on this government to renounce the prosecution of the Malawian men and the criminalisation of private, consensual adult sexual relations. [Interjections.]
The policy of the DA on homosexuality is that we respect the rights of people to practice what they like behind their closed bedroom doors.
I call on the Deputy Minister, in her reply to this debate, to break the department's deafening silence on the recent human rights abuses in Malawi and to commit the South African state to signing the UN Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity as soon as possible. By doing these things she will start to lead us out of the darkness and back onto the course of moral leadership in African foreign policy that Tata Mandela set us on 16 years ago. I thank you. [Applause.]