LGBTQ+ Leaders Urge Ramaphosa to Block Controversial Cape Town Conference

For Tebogo K. Legodi, Lee-Anne Walker and Marble Bore Kalembo, the stakes are personal and constitutional at once. The three Co-Chairpersons of the LGBTQIA+ Sector within the National Dialogue of South Africa signed a letter on 30 July 2026 asking President Cyril Ramaphosa and two senior ministers to act before a planned conference in Cape Town becomes, in their words, a staging ground against the rights of sexual and gender minorities.

The conference in question is the 3rd Pan-African Conference on Family Values, scheduled to run from 12 to 15 May 2027. Organised by the Africa Christian Professionals Forum, with the Family Policy Institute as its local partner, the event is what the sector describes as part of a coordinated international campaign to restrict LGBTQIA+ rights across the continent. “We cannot and will not allow such a conference to proceed unchallenged on South African soil,” the three representatives wrote.

Additional reference context is available at https://www.mambaonline.com/2026/07/31/lgbtqia-sector-calls-on-ramaphosa-to-stop-planned-anti-lgbtq-conference-in-cape-town/.

Cape Town is not an incidental choice of venue. The city is widely recognised as a major LGBTQ+ destination and is set to host WorldPride in 2028, which makes it a pointed location for what the sector characterises as an anti-rights gathering.

What troubles the sector most is the broader pattern. According to their letter, the Cape Town event forms part of a wider network of “family values” conferences already held in Nairobi, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana. These platforms, the sector argues, are being used to promote the Draft African Charter on Family Sovereignty and Values, a document that would redefine family in ways that exclude same-sex relationships and could erode protections for gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, freedom of expression and civic space. In June 2026, twenty African countries endorsed the proposed charter at a conference in Accra, Ghana. Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 has been repeatedly cited at these gatherings as a model for other nations to follow.

The letter was addressed to Ramaphosa, Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, and Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga. The sector expressed what it called “profound alarm” and asked the government to apply domestically the same constitutional clarity it showed in Accra. At that June 2026 conference, South Africa, alongside Mozambique, refused to endorse the Draft African Charter. Member of Parliament Zandile Majozi stated publicly that the proposed charter was incompatible with South Africa’s Constitution and its Bill of Rights. “We now ask that the same clarity be extended to the conduct of foreign and domestic anti-rights actors convening on our own soil,” the representatives wrote.

South Africa remains the only African nation whose Constitution explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the first country in the world to include such protection in its founding law. The sector’s letter acknowledges that sections 15 and 18 of the Constitution protect freedom of association, religion, belief and opinion. The representatives are not asking for those rights to be curtailed. Their argument is narrower: those rights cannot be used to shield what they call “the organised export of hatred.” As the letter puts it, “Freedom of association was never intended by the framers of our Constitution to shield the organised export of hatred.”

The sector has presented five specific requests. It is asking the Presidency to activate the rapid response mechanism promised through the National Dialogue to assess the threat posed by the conference. It wants an investigation into whether the conference programme, materials or invited speakers could constitute hate speech or unfair discrimination under South African law. It is also calling for engagement with the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government over public venues and permits, a clear public statement reaffirming South Africa’s commitment to equality and non-discrimination for LGBTQIA+ people, and a meeting with the sector and affected civil society organisations to develop a coordinated response.

The representatives are direct about what they are not asking for. “South Africa’s Constitution was not written to be selectively honoured,” the letter states. “The same document that gives the state its legitimacy gives every LGBTQIA+ person the right to live free from discrimination, in dignity and in safety.”

The sector says it is ready to work with the Presidency and relevant ministries to ensure the conference does not proceed “in its current, discriminatory form.” As of the letter’s publication, it is awaiting an urgent response from government. More detail on the sector’s concerns is available at www.mambaonline.com/2026/07/31/lgbtqia-sector-calls-on-ramaphosa-to-stop-planned-anti-lgbtq-conference-in-cape-town/

Whether Ramaphosa and his ministers respond before May 2027, and how, will signal how far South Africa’s constitutional commitments extend when tested at home.