We have had enough! For years, Cape Town hate pastor Oscar Bougardt has been spreading lies and misinformation about LGBTQ people. He has insulted us, said we “belong in a cage,” described us as sick, ungodly and pedophiles, and has even called for our execution.

Bougardt has blatantly flaunted two courts orders ordering him to stop making statements that are “discriminatory or incite hatred or harm on the grounds of sexual orientation" in violation of the Equality Act.

In May 2018, Bougardt was found guilty of contravening the first 2014 court order to end his anti-LGBTQ hate speech. He avoided prison time with a 30-day suspended sentence as long as he kept to the terms of the court order and was ordered to “draft an apology for his statements". He also agreed to end his relationship with American hate pastor Steven Anderson.

Since then he has repeatedly violated all these conditions, and has continued to make anti-LGBTQ comments on his Facebook page almost on a daily basis. He also recently met up with Anderson at an anti-Semitic conference in the USA and is working to have the American preacher visit the country (despite his being banned from entering South Africa in September 2016 by the Minister of Home Affairs).

On 17 October 2018, Bougardt was quoted by the Daily Voice as stating that Anderson "didn’t break any laws in SA, the minister was under pressure from f*gs so he gave in to them."

Despite repeated appeals to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), which originally instituted the case against Bougardt on behalf of a number of complainants, no action has been taken against him.

Eight months after the May 2018 ruling, the SAHRC says it is still "studying" his hateful and bigoted statements and "negotiating" with Bougardt to draft an apology.

This is unacceptable! No one would (rightly) tolerate racist vitriol of this kind - and homophobia should be no different. Bougard is gleefully making a mockery of the SAHRC, the Equality Act, the Equality Courts and the LGBTQ community.

Tell the SAHRC and the Department of Justice to take appropriate legal action requesting that the Equality Court immediately jail Bougardt for contravening the court order. This has to stop. An example needs to be set or the Equality Act will be shown to be a joke.