Organisers of the annual Soweto Pride event have postponed this year’s event, following what they are calling “coerced postponement by the state”.
This follows the event’s organisers, the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), being informed by the South African Police Service (SAPS) that the event would this year be categorised as a “medium-risk” event as a result of the fighting that took place at last year’s event.
In a statement explaining the postponement of this year’s event – scheduled to have taken place on Saturday September 24 – its organisers said: “Every year as we plan for Soweto Pride, we consistently attempt to comply with all regulations that aim to be about health and safety in organising events at great costs to the organisation.
“One of these is a requirement to apply for risk categorisation as either low, medium or high risk. For the past 11 years, Soweto Pride has been categorised as low risk.
“This year we were informed that, due to ‘unruly behaviour’ at Soweto Pride 2015, we have been moved to ‘medium risk’. This decision was received from the provincial office of the SAPS, backed by the emergency medical services, the disaster management unit, the Johannesburg Metro Police (JMPD) and the public order policing unit.”
Mandisa Mbatha-Backett, a FEW board member, said: “The decision to postpone was a heavy-hearted one, brought on by the strong arm of the state. We had the intention to host Soweto Pride 2016 as we had done for the past 11 years. However, this has been made impossible by state entities through unreasonable demands.”
Having the event categorised as medium risk would entail Soweto Pride organisers having to meet certain conditions in order for the event to be given the go-ahead. These include the provision of an additional 22 JMPD officers (at a cost of R35 000), 300 marshals (R75 000) and 80 graded security guards (R36 000).
Mbatha-Beckett added, however: “The decision to postpone goes beyond the financial implications but rather speaks to [our objection to] the policing of queer bodies. In addition, FEW is of the opinion that, should we comply with these conditions, we would in essence be condoning and accepting state control over our events.”
Additional conditions to be met include an entry fee (for better crowd control), obtaining a liquor licence in order to sell alcohol at the event and refusing to allow people to bring cooler boxes as this would “limit the intake of alcohol, thereby minimising the risk of chaos”.
Meeting these conditions, said Mbatha-Beckett, would go “against our mission and vision to create an accessible safe social space for LGBTI persons of all backgrounds”.
The statement issued by FEW added: “The legislation governing recreational events clearly states that in the event of a change in risk categorisation, written reasons are to be furnished to the event organiser.
“We have not received any written reasons. We inquired as to the reasons behind this decision and have received no concrete response save for the ‘unruly behaviour’. The SAPS maintains that there was chaos at Soweto Pride 2015 that saw a number of physical altercations, though we were not provided with reported cases substantiating these alleged incidents.”
Colonel Ngamula Masangu of Meadowlands SAPS, however, said: “We had some problems during last year’s event. Because there were fights, we had to look at the event and give it a categorisation. Fighting at an event is a very serious thing.”
When asked why, as the event’s orgainsers claimed, no written proof of these fights had been provided to them, Masangu said: “They know about those fights. I was with one of the organisers last year when those fights broke out.”
Masangu was, however, unable to recall the name of said organiser.
Mbatha-Beckett added: “FEW has launched an official petition on Change.org which will be attached to a request for investigation of the categorisation of the event, as no written reasons were provided to FEW regarding the change in risk categorisation.
“This will be forwarded to the office of the national commissioner, the mayor as well as the premier. We trust that the above offices will do the right thing and overturn the decision to categorise Soweto Pride as a medium risk event.
“FEW intends to continue with Soweto Pride 2016 without unreasonable conditions and restrictions.”
Carl Collison is the Other Foundation’s Rainbow fellow at the Mail & Guardian.
