Times Of Swaziland: Evicted for being gay

Evicted for being gay
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BY SISHO MAGAGULA on 17/08/2013 02:02:00


EZULWINI – In a first of its kind in the country, two youthful boys have been
evicted from Mvutshini for being gay.
The boys, aged 18 and 21 years, have been evicted by the area’s commnuity
police after the ‘whistle was blown’ on them by a relative.
News of the evicted boys, whose identities cannot be revealed, have spread like
wildfire within the small community situated at the foot of the notorious
Malagwane Hill.
The incident happened a month ago but the issue is still being spoken about as
if it happened yesterday.
According to an informed source, the boys were pupils in one of the primary
schools in the Lubombo region.
They decided to dump school and headed for Mvutshini where they were apparently
told that there were many unmarried men.
“They came to Mvutshini after being informed by unknown friends that there
were many men without wives in the area. They came here to scout and freely
practice their gay lifestyle since Mvutshini is a semi-urban area. Little did
they know that their mission would backfire terribly leading to their eviction
from the area,” disclosed a source.
Mission
The two boys disguised their mission as an innocent one to a relative identified
as Gugu Gadlela. Gadlela is an aunt to one of them and she lives in a rented one
room flat at Mvutshini.
After staying with the aunt for over two weeks, their cover was blown by
neighbours who reported to Gadlela that the boys were proposing love to a number
of boys and men in the area.
The aunt is said to have not taken kindly to the boys’ lifetsyle and
immediately reported them to the area’s community cops.
A meeting was convened where the boys were called to explain their lifestyle.
They confirmed that they were gay and that is when they were ordered to
immediately leave the area.
The reason for evicting them from the area, as confirmed to this publication by
their aunt, was that they would perpetrate ‘immoral behaviour’ within the
community (batowandzisa umoya lomubi neku-ngcola).
In an interview, Gadlela, confirmed the incident and narrated how the boys came
to stay with her.
She said when the boys first arrived; she asked them why they had decided to
visit her when schools were opened.
They lied to her and said they had been expelled because they had not paid
examination fees but Gadlela said her nephew was paid for by government under
the OVC fund.
“Nevertheless, I allowed them to stay with me for a while and look for jobs. I
tried helping them find jobs as herdboys. It was not long before rumours started
flying around about their lifestyle. One day a neighbour (male) came to my house
and enquired about their lifestyle. ‘Hawu ye Gugu kantsi labantfwana bakini
banja-ni because one of them is proposing love to me.’ I was stunned”, she
said.
She confronted them about their lifestyle and they admitted that they were in
fact gay.
“I asked them why they loved males yet they were of the same sex and they told
me that’s the way they were ‘born’ (badalwa),” she said.
Angry and stunned, the aunt dialled 999 and talked to the cops.
She told the police that she wanted to report people ‘labangcolile’ in her
house and she was seeking advice.
A female police officer who was on the line asked to speak to one of the boys.
“Among several questions, the female officer asked him how he had sexual
intercourse with other men and he explicitly narrated their sexual
activities,” she said.
Gadlela said she was horrified at hearing this. The boys further told the cops
that even if they could be arrested, they would continue with being gay because
that’s how they were ‘created’.
By the end of the phone conversation with the police, she was seething with
anger. She grabbed a belt and beat the daylights out of them.
She then called the community police who arrived and an impromptu meeting was
held.
During the meeting, the community cops demanded to know why she had beaten the
boys.
That was when she spilt the beans.
Bucopho
“There were four community police, including bucopho. My problem was that they
were dragging my name through the mud by their actions. I was afraid of being
labelled all sorts of names in the area and be accused of harbouring gay people
in my house. My other problem was that local men would have ended up quarelling
with their wives and resorted to being gay because of the boys living under my
roof,” she explained.
Gadlela said the community police commended her for a ‘job well done’ and
said she had displayed maturity by reporting the boys.
The meeting resolved that the boys should be evicted from the area and never
return. “I also begged them to never visit me because batowandzisa umoya
lomubi landzaweni,” she said.
Indeed, the following day, the boys packed their bags and left the area.
The incident was also confirmed by at least three community police members,
including Lucky ‘Lobhala’ Maseko who said the matter was brought to their
attention by a tenant in the area.
Efforts to obtain comment from the ejected gay boys were futile as they are
reportedly staying somewhere around Siphofaneni.
I’m here to stay – 39-year-old gay
EZULWINI – Following the eviction of two gay youths from Mvutshini, another
self confessed gay man from the same area has vowed not to leave.
Senzo Dlamini, a security guard, said he heard about the eviction of the boys
but he was not afraid of suffering the same fate.
Preferences
The jovial Dlamini said he was a bona fide resident of the area, having been
born there 39 years ago and was in no way ready to leave Mvutshini simply
because of his sexual preferences.
When specifically asked if he wasn’t afraid of being evicted from the area
following recent events, he simply said: “Ngite i-fear yaloko bhuti because
ngidaliwe. I’m not forging it. I was 12 years old when I realised I was
gay.”
He said despite that many people in the area knew him as being gay, they
continued harrassing him.
“When I move around; maybe to the shops to buy bread, they do not insult me
but there are a few people who harrass me at night when I am from certain
places. ‘Ha nasi lesitabane’ is what they usually say. I’m not, however,
intimidated by them because this is who I am,” he said.
Asked how he discovered he was actually gay, Dlamini said he became gay after
being sodomised by a Mozambican when he was 12 years old. The Mozam-bican was 20
years at the time and used to stay within the family compound.
Incident
He said he had been gay ever since that incident.
Dlamini admitted, however, that had he not been abused by the Mozambican, there
are chances he could not have become gay.
... ‘Umoya lomubi not allowed here’
EZULWINI – “Umoya lomubi asiwufuni landzaweni,” simply said one community
police member.
He had been asked to explain why the two boys were evicted from the area.
Sicelo Vilane, one of the community police, said the community was increasingly
getting worried about growing ‘bad tendencies’ in the area and they,
together with responsible residents were on a mission of getting rid of all bad
elements.
“Those boys were expelled because of lomoya lomubi which they were practicing.
Umoya lomubi awukavu-meleki landzaweni and it is fortunate that their aunt
quickly noticed their behaviour and alerted us,” he said.
Throughout the interview, Vilane constantly referred to being gay as ‘umkhuba
lo-mubi’. He said the problem was that Mvutshini was a semi-urban area, hence
it was prone to all sorts of bad elements. “Maybe we are unlucky; all people
with bad tendencies tend to come and rent flats here. They want to pollute our
community and we won’t tolerate that,” he said.
Leader of Ezulwini, Chief Sifiso Khumalo says he is not aware that there are
people who have been shown the exit door from his area on the basis of being
gay.
He noted that the matter was probably deliberated at a lower level and was still
going to be reported to him.  “I’m reluctant to comment because I’m not
aware of it. I will make a follow up to find out if something of this nature did
happen,” he said.
Khumalo was quick to add that everything was done in accordance with the law in
his area.
The chief, himself a veteran lawyer polished by years of courtroom litigation,
cited the Constitution. “Our stance in Ezu-lwini is that we follow the law in
everything we do. We comply with everything that is in the Constitution which is
the supreme law of the land,” he said.