FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

27 January 2021

Dear Macgyver “MacG” Mukwevho and Sol Phenduka

Iranti – a Johannesburg based organisation dedicated to defending the rights of transgender persons, and the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community as a whole are concerned by the transphobic comments you have made during episode 220 of Podcast and Chill with MacG. In 2019 we engaged constructively with Zodwa Wabantu about homophobic comments made on her show on MojaLOVE. For more information about us please visit our website here.

It has come to our attention that in a recent podcast titled “|Episode 220| Dr Wouter Basson, Johan Rupert, Somizi, SAFTA’s, Siv https://www.himalaya.com/comedy-podcasts/podcast-and-chill-with-macg-1003496/episode-220-dr-wouter-basson-johan-rupert-somizi-saftas-siz-ngesi-129321906Ngesi”, between 00:31:45:00 and 33:43 a number of disparaging and uninformed comments were made about transgender and other LGBTIQ+ identities. These include:

● The apparent implicit mocking of the number of letters in the acronym used to identify these diverse identities

● Laughing at the very concept of “a woman with a dick”

● Implying that all transgender women by default have “a dick”

● Alleging that several figures have dated trans women and implying that this is an unusual thing for them as men to do.

The comments above are, from our understanding, part of a long history of homophobic and transphobic, or otherwise “edgy” comments on public platforms. We reach out to you in good faith and request to work with you to build a sensitivity approach to understanding the harm, discrimination, and violence that comments and actions such as these can cause to vulnerable groups. In a country such as ours which has such high levels of femicide and anti-LGBTIQ+ violence, it is of the utmost importance that public figures such as yourself, who can influence social attitudes, do whatever they can to protect the lives of the most vulnerable.

Iranti understands the hurt, pain, and real-life consequences comments like these have in the lives of LGBTQI+ persons in South Africa. We would like to remind you and your team about the comments made in 2008 by Jon Qwelane in his opinion piece for the Sunday Sun with the headline, “Call me names, but gay is NOT okay.” His comments were found to amounted to hate speech in terms of section 10(1) of the Equality Act. We rather you learn from these comments then have punitive action taken against you as you do have a role to play in educating your listeners.

We would like to request a meeting with you – either in person with COVID-19 safety regulations in place or online, to discuss in detail why we object to the comments made and how we feel a constructive way forward can be found. If not, we will have to consider taking some form of public action to raise awareness about the dangers that transphobic words and deeds in the media pose to our community.

We look forward to hearing from you soonest,

Kind regards

Rumana Akoob, Media and Communications Specialist, Iranti

+27780366832 | rumana@iranti.org.za