A right to pride!

This past weekend, we “celebrated” Africa’s oldest Pride, Joburg Pride, first organised in 1990 with pioneering activists like Dr Beverley Ditsie.

- Heidi Thembeka Sincuba

Park it: Wits anthropologist Dr Nosipho Mngomezulu, Dr Bev Ditsie, singer Leon John, and wellness facilitator and co-founder of House of Ditsie, Nicole Ditsie, whose organisation House of Ditsie hosted an alternative community gathering to mark Pride in Johannesburg. Photo: Angelo Louw

(Angelo Louw)

In recent years, the official Pride event has faced harsh criticism for favouring sponsorship and spectacle over its activist roots. Ahead of the 36th edition this month, several organisations, including South African Jews for a Free Palestine, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Narrative Repair, Queers for Palestine and Save Our Sacred Lands, issued an open letter under the banner NoGoBurg Pride, urging a boycott.

The letter backed up its claims by recalling 2012 when One in Nine activists were blocked from holding a moment of silence for murdered black lesbians and trans people.

It accused Joburg Pride of “rainbow-washing” and colluding with corporations that profit from oppression. Amazon, previously cited as a sponsor, was criticised for alleged ties to Israel and African land exploitation, though Joburg Pride later clarified it was not a 2025 sponsor.

The NoGoBurg Pride open letter loudly declared: “No pride in genocide” and instructed participants to “wear all black to Joburg Pride”, where they would be “singing; talking about Palestine, Sudan, Congo, supporting fellow queers”. It even encouraged readers to attend alternative, activist-led spaces on the day.

What strikes me is the hypocrisy and deflection in some of the spaces most vocal about justice, once one has experienced them from the inside.

Within many (activist) communities exists exploitation, inequality and nepotism. They tend to generate offshoots — informal subgroups that, despite their rhetoric of care and solidarity, can be emotionally charged and, at times, profoundly unsafe, particularly for poor, black and queer folk.