ANC Pushes Civil Union Bill Through Parliament 2
The passage of the Civil Unions Bill, which would allow for both homo- and heterosexual civil unions outside the confines of the Marriage Act, through parliament has resulted in the ANC instructing all it’s MP’s to approve of the bill irrespective of their own personal feelings on the matter of homosexual marriage and despite the protestations from various religous and traditional leadership groups. ANC MP’s who are traditional leaders are still trying to abstain if possible, which would be one of the few times ever the ANC has ever had to deal with this type of dissension in it’s ranks.
Despite the fact that a significant chunk of it’s voters are conservative Christians (the stranglehold the ANC has on identity politics probably being one of the reasons why they haven’t jumped to the ACDP yet in my opinion) the ANC have enacted a number of laws that have not exactly make those voters happy and I wonder for how long they can continue doing so?
Mosiuoa Lekota was decisive in this debate because his co-accused in the Delmas treason trial was Simon Nkoli, who came out of the closet during the trial. The debates that followed convinced Lekota that gay rights are human rights. For more see my blog: http://constitutionallyspeakingsa.blogspot.com/
I must say I am becoming quite impressed with Lekota.