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No room for bigotry

MALAWI is dead set on jailing human beings for falling in love with people they ought not to fall in love with - and once again the Southern African Development Community is hiding behind the sovereignty of member states to explain its latest inaction.

MALAWI is dead set on jailing human beings for falling in love with people they ought not to fall in love with - and once again the Southern African Development Community is hiding behind the sovereignty of member states to explain its latest inaction.

The SADC has chosen to hide behind moral relativism, saying its hands are tied and urging all of us to respect Malawi's constitution, which outlaws gay marriages.

"I believe it is common knowledge that all SADC member states have different constitutions and we have to respect laws of their lands," SADC spokesperson Segolane Evan has been quoted as saying.

"Malawi manages its own internal affairs just like any other SADC member states, and people living in those countries should respect the local constitutions. The Malawi constitution does not recognise gay marriages and that should respected too."

We reject this line of thinking. If the SADC were to apply this line consistently it would not have been able to bring about the unity government in Zimbabwe.

It would not, in its previous guise as the Frontline States, have bothered about what was happening in apartheid South Africa since the Nationalist Party could have argued that it to had a right to govern its sovereign state in any way it wished.

Human freedom must dictate that those who put their shoulders to the wheel against racial prejudice should also find bigotry on the basis of sexual orientation offensive.

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