Rapid Scoping Review 2025: South Africa

Section 9 (3) of the Bill of Rights in South Africa’s Constitution, introduced in 1996, prohibits unfair discrimination on the grounds of ‘race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth’. This legal framework offers protection, and formal recognition as equal citizens, to women and to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and more (LGBTQI+) people. It also positions South Africa as an important regional place of refuge for LGBTQI+ Africans, despite the country’s high rates of gender-based violence (GBV) and xenophobia. Conversely, South Africa is also a ‘launchpad’ for backlash actors, and has hosted a number of regional convenings of (for example) Family Watch International (FWI) and the World Congress of Families (WCF). Anti-rights actors active in the country include affiliates of the WCF such as the Family Policy Institute, a ‘pro-life, pro-family think-tank. Two of South Africa’s political parties, the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and Al Jama-ah, a Muslim conservative organisation, are explicitly anti-LGBTI. This brief explores the context of rollback, the landscape of anti-rollback actors, counter-rollback strategies, and gaps and areas for future research and work.