There is nothing worse than a leader without backbone. If Mr Tsvangirai had hoped to go down in the annals of history as a defender of freedom, protector of human rights or as his books and publishers seem to indicate: that guy who finally defeated the Moo-gah-bee regime, he should aspire to lesser goals.

BBC NEWS Africa reports: Zimbabwe’s PM Morgan Tsvangirai in gay rights U-turn. Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has reversed his position on gay rights, saying he now wants them enshrined in a new constitution. He told the BBC that gay rights were a “human right” that conservative Zimbabweans should respect.

Yet last year the very same PM of Zimbabwe, who has been described ‘as a courageous and indefatigable symbol of resistance in the face of brutal repression’ declared that he agreed with Our Dear Leader’s position on the issue, and would not support the rights of LGBTI persons being enshrined in the Constitution.

What kind of leader completely changes position on something so crucial to the lives of thousands of Zimbabweans as their right to practice their sexuality as they see fit?

There is nothing courageous about finally being a part of government and doing nothing to change the laws, then worse, joining the other side in persecuting that minority. And there is nothing admirable about using the pain and suffering of people who have been persecuted by the government that is supposed to protect them to pander to Western media.

Read the GALZ statement here

This entry was posted on October 26th, 2011 at 11:07 am by Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.