As Johannesburg Pride prepares to take place this Saturday, a campaign urging attendees to boycott the event over corporate sponsorship has sparked heated debate within the LGBTQ+ community.

Kaye Ally, the founder and director of Pride of Africa and Johannesburg Pride, vehemently rejects the NoGoBurg Pride campaign’s assertion that its stance is a form of activism, labelling it as hate speech and a threat to an already vulnerable community.

The NoGoBurg Pride campaign, which has gained support from several organisations, has issued an open letter detailing its opposition to Amazon’s sponsorship of the Pride march.

The letter cites Amazon’s position on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) list, which campaigns against enabling Israel through technological investments, as a key reason for the boycott.

They also reference ongoing legal challenges against Amazon for its developments on ancestral lands of the Khoi and San people as evidence of the disconnect between corporate sponsorship and the community’s interests.

“Pride is sponsored by Amazon this year, a company that is on the BDS list… This is just an example of how Pride as a corporate event does not represent our community,” the letter claims.

The BDS movement argues that the tech sector significantly contributes to Israel’s economy, thereby encouraging apartheid policies.

In response, Ally defended the position of Johannesburg Pride and dismissed the campaign. “The recent call to boycott Johannesburg Pride is deeply concerning not only for its misinformation but for the groups and organisations endorsing it.”

She highlighted that many of the endorsing organisations have a history of promoting homophobic perspectives, which dangerously exacerbates an already hostile environment for LGBTQ+ individuals.

Ally revealed that some of the groups backing the boycott have openly called for violence against queer individuals in videos circulating online.

“These are not isolated views; they are the direct outcome of dangerous and reckless messaging that has placed LGBTQ+ South Africans at risk,” she commented.

She stated that Johannesburg Pride represents a crucial platform for visibility, education, and advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights, rooted in the fundamental human rights guaranteed by the South African Constitution.

“We will not allow external agendas to hijack our movement or turn our struggle into a proxy war for geopolitical causes rooted in regions where queer existence is punishable by death,” she said, reiterating the ongoing need for free expression and safety within the community.

Ally called upon the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to investigate these coordinated attacks, which constitute both hate speech and a threat to the safety of LGBTQ+ South Africans.

“Where are these so-called ‘activists’ when queer people in Uganda or Ghana are imprisoned, beaten, or executed? Their silence then, and their selective outrage now, exposes their hypocrisy,” she said.

As a gay Muslim, Ally draws on her personal experiences to advocate for the rights of queer individuals in her community. Her commitment to pride and visibility spans 15 years, during which she has both witnessed and fought against the forces of intolerance and ignorance.

“We march for ourselves. See you at Johannesburg Pride,” she declared, inviting all to join the movement for inclusion.

In response to Ally’s claims, the NoGoBurg organisers explained that they are a collective of self-organised trans, queer, and non-binary individuals who came together to object to the corporatisation of Pride.

The organisers said they are not associated with any organisation that has not endorsed the open letter nor are they aligned with any homophobic groups that incite violence against their community.

They acknowledged that, as with any collective gathering for a shared purpose, there will inevitably be disagreements and instances of unacceptable behaviour. Such occurrences are not unique to this group but are a common aspect of all public spaces.

They clarified that NoGoBurg approached Save Our Sacred Lands (SOSL) as they are in a legal case with Amazon over land, and SOSL agreed to endorse their letter.

SOSL said the organisation supports human rights for all, including the LGBTQIA+ community and oppressed peoples, linking their fight for Indigenous rights and solidarity with Palestine to their pursuit of justice, safety, and dignity for all.

The collective said they stand in solidarity with SOSL and for the people of Palestine, Sudan, Congo, Uganda, and those dispossessed and marginalised across the world by big corporations such as Amazon.

As an intersectional queer collective, NoGoBurg, said they embrace various religious and spiritual traditions. 

The collective, comprising workers and educators, questions Joburg Pride’s advocacy for community safety while accepting funding from a US-based multinational profiting from the killing of Palestinians, irrespective of their gender or sexual identity.

Palestine and South Africa have decades of history of resisting apartheid together, and NoGoBurg is in solidarity with all people subjected to US and European imperialism, it said.

In a statement on Thursday, Ally clarified that Johannesburg Pride did not officially onboard Amazon as a partner for this year’s event.

She said preliminary discussions with the company were released prematurely on a platform outside of their control before any formal agreement was finalised.

Ally also claimed that Johannesburg Pride was not permitted to respond to the open letter prior to its public release.

In 2021, Israel’s government partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud services for its public sector and military.

AWS Senior Vice President Peter DeSantis, at the time, stated that the AWS Israel (Tel Aviv) Region would empower various institutions, start-ups, and companies, fuelling economic development and supporting Israel’s digital transformation program by leading cloud adoption to reinvent citizen services.

Last week, CNBC reported that a Palestinian engineer working for Amazon’s Whole Foods business was fired. This followed his suspension last month for internal posts protesting Amazon’s work with Israel, which were found to violate company policies.

karen.singh@inl.co.za

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