SA caught up in Uganda's gay war
AFP, Staff reporter, Reuters | 2014-02-20 00:55:00.0

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has announced he will sign into law
the controversial anti-gay bill, passed by parliament in December, in
terms of which homosexuals will be jailed for life. File photo
Image by: STR / REUTERS
Rights groups urged the government yesterday to urgently halt the
deportation of a Ugandan doctor and gay rights activist over fears
that he will be in danger if he is sent home.
Paul Semugoma, a medical doctor who has lobbied against Kampala's
tough pending anti-homosexuality legislation, was detained on Monday
by immigration officials at OR Tambo International Airport in
Johannesburg.
He was returning from a trip to Zimbabwe.
Lawyers fighting for his release said they had won a court injunction
on Tuesday to prevent Semugoma's deportation to Uganda, but that
authorities had ignored the order and tried to usher him onto an
airplane.
Immigration officials denied the claim and said they had appealed the
injunction. Ayanda Khumalo, a lawyer acting for Semugoma, said: "We've
been refused contact with him, so we don't know how he is physically.
"But from speaking to him over the phone, he's not well at all. He's
distraught and he's losing hope, I guess, at this stage," Khumalo
said.
Semugoma phoned his lawyers yesterday afternoon, saying that officials
were trying to put him on a flight back to Uganda.
He reportedly refused to get on the plane. Six rights groups issued a
statement yesterday calling on the government not to expel Semugoma,
saying he was "wanted in Uganda for his activism" around gay issues.
"The human rights situation in Uganda has deteriorated, and the LGBT
[lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community is particularly
vulnerable at this time," they said. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni
has announced he will sign into law the controversial anti-gay bill,
passed by parliament in December, in terms of which homosexuals will
be jailed for life.
Semugoma has unsuccessfully applied twice in the past to gain a South
African work permit.
After both applications were turned down in 2012, Home Affairs had
given him a visitor's visa that allowed him to travel in and out of
the country, said the rights groups.
Department of Home Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said the
department was applying for leave to appeal the interim order granted
by the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday.
Mamoepa said Semugoma had been denied entry into South Africa because
his visa had expired.
"The suggestion that the Department of Home Affairs sought to ignore
the interim court order in this regard is false and must be
dismissed," Mamoepa said.
Uganda on Tuesday dismissed US President Barack Obama's call to
Museveni not to sign the controversial bill, saying the US was trying
to blackmail the East African country.
Uganda's anti-gay bill was first introduced in 2009 and initially
proposed a death sentence for homosexual acts.
It was amended to prescribe jail terms, including life for what it
calls "aggravated" homosexual acts, including where one of the
partners is infected with HIV, and repeated offences by consenting
homosexual adults.
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