Minister joins Nguvu Changeleader to fight trans and non-binary discrimination in South Africa
The Department of Home Affairs currently only allows people to change their gender when they have had gender-affirming surgery and have gone through months and months of psychiatric tests. But South Africa has only one public hospital that offers free gender-affirming surgery. Many trans-nonbinary individuals are discriminated against on many levels including when they need to present official documentation that uses the gender they were assigned at birth (e.g. the South African ID which includes obvious gender markers).
Nguvu Changeleader Zade’s campaign asks for the ID numbers children are assigned at birth to be gender-neutral. This would allow trans-nonbinary individuals to choose their own gender markers at Home Affairs and not be required to have gone through any surgery or psychiatric testing.
Nguvu Collective supported Zade in arranging high-profile decision-maker meetings with Muzi Mvoko, the parliamentary correspondent to the Minister of Home Affairs; and with a senior staff representative of the Speaker of Parliament.
The office of the Minister of Home Affairs has agreed to put out a press statement urging the Parliament to reintroduce a Bill on ID numbers and get it passed. This has led to international and national media interest in Zade’s story (The Washington Blade Feature, The Los Angeles Blade Feature, Times Live Feature, Ground News, and Power FM).
How?
Nguvu Collective staff have supported Zade to combine a broad online public and media campaign with targeted decision-maker outreach. Nguvu Collective staff in South Africa:
- Connected Zade to Angela Khanyile, a Democratic Alliance MP who sits in the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs. She was able to help Zade get the petition delivered, and she connected Zade to the right people to meet the parliamentary correspondent to the Minister of Home Affairs.
- Supported Zade in writing to the office of the speaker of parliament, asking her to receive the petition and table it before parliament. She sent a senior staff representative to meet Zade as she had a parliamentary vote running on the day.
- Optimised the petition, social media strategy and media releases for visible public support to coincide with these meetings. This included a partnership with podcaster Rosie Mtene, The Queer Space, a United Democratic Movement public endorsement and public messages of support from MPs and allies in Parliament.
- Staff connected foreign journalists to Zade to cover their story.
Zade will be following up the Minister’s statement of endorsement for the campaign then working with Queer organisations to get the Bill on the Manifestos of key political parties in the lead-up to the election in May.
