South Africa has confirmed it will not adopt an anti-LGBTQ+ charter promoted at a controversial “family values” conference in Accra, Ghana, raising questions about why the country participated in the event at all.
Ghana’s Parliament, which recently passed an extreme anti-LGBTQ+ bill, hosted the 4th African Regional Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty.
The conference was reportedly attended by parliamentarians from 20 African countries and is framed by supporters as a defence against what they describe as a foreign agenda that undermines cultural norms, traditional family structures, gender roles, and children’s well-being across the continent.
Rolling back rights in the name of family values
The event has become a major platform for promoting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, campaigning against comprehensive sexuality education, and supporting restrictions on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
One of its central goals is to encourage African Union member states to adopt the Draft African Charter on Family Sovereignty and Values.
The charter seeks to exclude same-sex families from the definition of family and roll back human rights protections connected to gender, sexuality, reproductive health and freedom of expression across Africa.
South Africa declines to support the charter
Speaking at the conference, MP Zandile Majozi, who reportedly led South Africa’s delegation, told delegates that South Africa would not support the charter’s adoption.
“South Africa would like to reserve our rights in not adopting the charter because it contradicts the Constitution of South Africa, especially in Chapter Two,” she said.
Chapter Two of South Africa’s Constitution contains the country’s Bill of Rights, which explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation.
Majozi, who chairs the Parliamentary Group on International Relations, also said South Africa could not support the charter because it “does not align with the regional and international laws that we believe in.”
Questions over South Africa’s participation
While some have welcomed South Africa’s refusal to endorse the charter, others have questioned why the country sent representatives to the conference at all.
The event is widely recognised by human rights groups as a platform for anti-rights and anti-gender movements, with LGBTQ+ advocates warning that it is being used to advance discriminatory laws across the continent.
Concerns over foreign conservative influence
Human rights groups have also criticised the conference for presenting itself as a defence of African and anti-colonial values while receiving support from, and promoting the views of, right-wing Christian organisations from Europe and the United States.
Those organisations include Family Watch International.
Henk Jan van Schothorst from the Christian Council International in the Netherlands also attended the conference this week. He has close ties to the drafting of the African Charter on Family Sovereignty and Values.
Ghanaian advocacy organisation Rightify Ghana said, “It is important to be clear about one thing: there is very little that is genuinely African” about the conference.
“This is not a story about protecting African values from foreign influence. Rather, it raises important questions about the growing role of foreign conservative networks in shaping laws and policies across Africa,” the group said.
“Imported hate does not become African simply because it is repackaged in the language of culture, sovereignty, or family values.”
Hate conference could come to South Africa
Reports suggest organisers are considering hosting the next African Regional Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty in Cape Town, South Africa.
If that happens, South Africa may face renewed pressure to explain how participation in such an event aligns with its constitutional commitment to equality, dignity and non-discrimination.
