'Bland' Cape Town Pride Festival: Not all things bright and beautiful

While thousands showed up and showing out for Cape Town Pride Festival to turn the city into one big rainbow playground, the importance of keeping its protest roots alive was also a pressing issue.

Even though the Cape Town rain brought Saturday’s festivities to a close sooner than anticipated, the day still proved to be a showcase of everything from music, drag and live performances. Many families, friends, and allies came out to show support for the City’s LGBTQIA+ community.

The Pride Festival is also a regular event for some political parties, such as GOOD leader and Tourism Minister, Patricia de Lille, and several officials from the Democratic Alliance, including Mayco Member for Urban Mobility, Rob Qantas.

De Lille, in attendance as part of the Unite for Change Leadership Council, said that they came to support the LGBTQIA+ community because “it's a human right”.

“It's a constitutional right, and people should not be discriminated against. We will have to do this consistently to keep reminding everyone that they are all equal in this country. And what we do with our lives is our human right to do so. So, please stop the discrimination.”

Qantas said that the City has been sponsoring the event for more than a decade.

The festival has not come without its fair share of criticism over the years, and this year saw the protest against the City of Cape Town’s N2 Wall project.

The protest was carried out by “Queers Demand Homes Not Walls” and was initiated by Tamara Nechama Thusi.

“I think it's just a group of us that are devastated by this atrocious idea of the DA to build a wall that'll cost approximately R80 million. First of all, the idea of a wall is very dehumanising, and second of all, that money could be used to fix things in the community, such as unmaintained toilets and insufficient/unmaintained floodlights.

“Same thing about taps, and then, of course, housing. This concept of the money being used to build an apartheid wall when it could be used for community upliftment and tackling community problems made us very upset and angry, and we felt that we needed to do something about it, especially at Pride, where the DA has a big presence,” Thusi said.

Thusi said that the City’s narrative of creating this wall for safety and security reasons does not hold up, as it begs the question about whose safety in the City counts.

“Just ahead of the pride march and putting this campaign together, along with some comrades from the Good party.

“We went into the community, and we chatted to some residents there, and we spoke to some of the women there, and they told us how it's unsafe for them to actually go to the bathroom once the sun sets.

“They are at risk of assault and being raped, and what makes them extra vulnerable is the fact that the floodlights that were once working don't work anymore. It's totally pitch dark in that area,” Thusi said.

“That's one example of whose safety counts. It's clearly not the woman from along there, and not the community. Then there are other examples of kids who have no places to play, except for the side of the road and taps that aren't working and have no drainage.

“The DA is very big with pink-washing, and they are a huge sponsor at Pride. They have a huge presence.

“Some of us queer people will not accept that. Being queer also means standing with oppressed people, and we just won't tolerate the DA, who come to pride, pinkwashes, and say they're standing for some people's human rights, but then what about communities living in Khayelitsha and on the Cape Flats who will be impacted by this wall.”

Another Pride festival attendee, Tamlyn Hendricks, said that while Pride is fun, there is also still general room for improvement.

“I don't know what the budget is around decoration and homeliness, and the type of events coordination that feels like it needs attention. For instance, the stage looked very bare. It looked and felt like it could have been any old concert, and even then, I feel like other festivals and concerts have more stage presence. It felt bland.

“It didn't feel as, you know, as boisterous or as welcoming as you want pride to feel. And that's just the stage, I feel like everywhere else along the festival, everything else felt just as bland,” Hendricks said.

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za