EDITOR’S NOTE: In response to an article by US based South African activist, Melanie Nathan on Queerlife where it is alleged that Mr Gay South Africa 2011, Lance Weyer, is under investigation for alleged comments he made towards the South African Department of Justice and its Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Mr Weyer have asked us to publish the letter he sent in his capacity as Mr Gay South South Africa 2011 to the parties involved.
Mr Weyer is currently in the USA and will respond in full when he is back in South Africa.
Mr Weyer have also asked Queerlife to note that he’s received no answers to his queries as of yet. Queerlife can also report that we ourselves are also still awaiting answers to similar questions posed by website journalists to the South African Department of Justice.
SUBJECT: REPLY: 30 May DOJCD
Dear Ms Siphiwe,
As Mr Gay South Africa I am blessed a prominent profile in the South African LGBTI community. This results in people often coming to me with complaints or queries as they don’t know where else to go. On 10 October 2011 I received a message from a concerned journalist in Cape Town regarding the below mentioned Task Team:
“And at the moment Lance I am deeply concerned. It’s not doing so great. And this time it’s not the government’s fault. The LGBTQ NGO’s involved cannot stop bickering and infighting. In fact, it’s so bad that the Minister have on 2 occasions threatened to disband it and go with Luleki Sizwe alone. If he decides to disband it at some point, all hell will break loose and it will take years to get something similar going again… In my opinion, the NGO’s clearly illustrate their inexperience and lack of motivation in dealing with these matters by bickering in front of the Minister and Cosato delegates instead of sorting out differences of opinion before and after meetings. The Minister is a busy man and our issues are not the only ones he’s got to deal with. It’s also a matter of showing respect. His department was the first to really hold out the hand of friendship.”
I made an attempt to contact your department for information via details on your website, but the email PKambula@justice.gov.za bounced back undelivered. The only information on your website is a brochure “Frequently Asked Questions on LGBTI” that makes no reference to the Task Team.
Recently I made contact with Ndumi Funda of Luleki Sizwe who assured me that the Task Team was very active and provided me with two cell phone numbers, yours and Mr Tlali’s. I smsed both these numbers to ask for your email addressed so that I can send my concerns to you in writing, but did not receive a reply.
It has been more than a year since this Task Team was announced in the media, but we have heard nothing since. It was widely reported that “South Africa’s Ministry of Justice has established a national task team to address hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans South Africans after 170,000 activists submitted a petition calling for action.”
The BBC reported that Justice ministry spokesman Tlali Tlali said the task team would begin its work in July and include six representatives from the judiciary, police and department of social development and six representatives from the gay community.”The team will be charged with developing a legislative intervention plan, a public awareness strategy, and LGBTI [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex]-sensitive shelters,” he said.
In my position I follow LGBTI media very closely but have not seen a single report as to the Task Team’s progress since. As I stated, Ms Funda claims the Task Team is still active and people are transported to Pretoria for meetings. She did admit that she has not been able to attend the last couple of meetings.
The more rumours I heard that the Task Team was not living up to its media-claimed mandate the more concerned I became and have since referred the matter to the Democratic Alliance DOJ&CD; team in parliament for investigation. Hon Dene Smuts MP was says she has not heard of this task team and couldn’t help wondering whether it might not have been run by the EU funded NGO who was allowed to do some work for Justice. She said she would investigate.
It seems to me that government departments are working in silos once again and not communicating.
I would like to know, for the interest of public clarity:
1. Under what legal/statutory requirements was the Task Team set up?
2. How often has it met?
3. Who are the six representatives from the judiciary, police and department of social development?
4. Who are the six representatives from the gay community?
5. How much has been budgeted for this project and what are the expenses to date?
6. From which vote is this being funded?
7. What measures has the task team taken to address its mandate, hate crimes against LGBT South Africans?
8. Has the promised legislative intervention plan been developed? If so, where is it?
9. Has the promised public awareness strategy been developed? If so, where is it?
10. What is the progress on LGBTI sensitive shelters?
If you would like, I would be happy to submit a request for records of a public body in terms of Section 18(1) of the Promotion of Access to Information Act(2000).
Kind regards,
Lance Weyer
#1 Melanie Nathan 2012-06-16 17:53
The DOJ did reply to Lance Weyer. The reply is in my article that Lance Weyer and the editors are referring to here. In the reply The DOJ asked Weyer to follow protocol and that his questions would not be answered in the current form of communication.
But that said, let me add – the attack by Weyer on the Task team is nothing more than divisive AT THIS particular juncture in time.
This is the time when the focus should be on the attack against the LGBT community by the Traditional Chiefs.
This is not the time to divide the community. It must be remembered that the TASK TEAM is a partnership of LGBTI and other NGO’s with the Dept of Justice. It is not the DOJ on its own, SO attacking the DOJ about The Task team is tantamount to attacking those NGO’s which Lance actually did more vocally in his initial divisive letter.
Anyway bottom line – LANCE WEYER to the DOJ you are nothing more than another regular person – there is “no capacity of MR GAY SA” for them to recognise.
Mr. Gay SA is a for profit business and you were a volunteer competitor who signed up for the pageant and won prizes.
Why should they take you seriously when you cannot even follow the basic protocol any regular citizen is expected to follow when asking them questions?
Mr. GAY SA has no official authoritative designation with the DOJ that is why they has no clue who you were when you initially sent them a communication.
MR GAY SA is not even an NGO and nor is it part of the Task Team.
#2 Melanie Nathan 2012-06-16 17:56
Here is the answer to the above letter:-
From: Justice.gov.za
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2012 10:11:42 +0000
To: Lance Weyer
Those Cc’d Mr. GAY SA, Coenie Kukkuk (owner of Gay Mr. GAY SA and an attorney, and a group of South African leaders, activists and politicians.
Subject: RE: REPLY: 30 May DOJCD
Dear Mr Weyer
The DOJCD welcomes and is confident in responding to questions related to the Task Team. Kindly submit a request for records of a public body in terms of Section 18(1) of the Promotion of Access to Information Act(2000). The DOJCD will adhere to and respond in the time provided by the Act.
With regards to the so called “communication unanswered” – eight ( 8 ) hours before our correspondence the Minister’s Spokesperson and myself received an anonymous sms in the evening stating they were a Lance Weyer and that we should send our email addresses. Mr Weyer will appreciate we did not know who you were, whom you were representing but despite that as we would have done anybody else – responded in eight ( 8 ) hours. We submit there are also numerous mediums of contacting the Minister’s Spokesperson and myself of which was not done adequately. Please do so in the future.
That being said the DOJCD deems it prudent that Mr Weyer respond to the questions he failed to respond to. Namely as to whom Mr Weyer is referring to when he states that he is in consultation with members of the DOJCD and with whom they are creating a new and improved Task Team. We also inquire as to the EU Funding that has been referred to. In addition the misrepresentation of the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development without his mandate.
We call upon Mr Weyer to give a written explanation to his statements to the National Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. An investigation will be conducted and the Ministry reported to accordingly.
Thank you for your email.
Kind Regards
YAWN MS NATHAN….. YAWN!!!!
Yawn x 2
Lance lodged a request for records of a public body in terms of Section 18(1) of the Promotion of Access to Information Act(2000) as they have not yet answered him and can not disprove that he was right. When he called the DOJ to task because of the “Task Force” that does not do anything – they threatened to investigate his “allegations”. Typical ANC – try to jail the whistleblower. That is the real story here. They hae yet to come up with any answers – because they can not answer his questions as nothing is in fact happening and no Task Force actually exists.
Lance, give it to them
Go Lance, we are with you. Ons glo in jou.
Thank you to Queerlife for showing both sides of the story. For the DOJ to not know who Lance is just indicates how out of tune they and their ‘task team’ are with the LGBTI community in SA. If Lance wasn’t from the DA then the DOJ wouldn’t be so aprehensive. If Lance wasn’t Mr. Gay SA then Melanie Nathan wouldn’t even have looked at his letter twice as she has a blogging need to tattle-tale on Prominent SA LGBTI citizens. If the selected NGO’s had been efficient and Pro-active as part of the LGBTI task force then there wouldn’t have been need to question their progress, now would there? Goodness knows why Melanie has such a chip on her shoulder? Maybe because a Gay man has more influence than her? Don’t worry, Melanie, one of these days there could be a Miss Gay SA who you could show your biased support to. Only thing is Miss Gay SA would have to support the ANC to keep Melanie happy.