The following report appeared in today's edition of the Cape 
Times. The report is available on the web at 
http://www.inc.co.za/online/News3/south_africa/law/0508gay.html, so 
I'm assuming they won't mind being quoted here.

Adult gay sex is not a crime, court rules 

5/8/97 

A CAPE HIGH COURT'S finding that consenting adult males have a
constitutional right to sex in private is a gain for gays,
but contrary to Roman Catholic tenets, LISA TEMPLETON reports. 

SEX between consenting male adults is now legal in the Western Cape, after
a landmark judgment in the Cape High Court. 

The judgment has been hailed as a victory by the gay community, who say it
is a tremendous weight off the minds of people whose sexuality has been
condemned for centuries as a criminal offence. 

Spokesmen hope the judgment will have a domino effect on other laws that
discriminate against gays, such as child custody and adoption laws, and
that it will set a precedent for other provinces. 

Until 1993, about 400 people a year were convicted for sodomy. Most were
people of colour. 

Yesterday Mr Justice Ian Farlam, with Mr Justice SS Ngcobo, overturned
Knysna prisoner Gordon Kampher's conviction and suspended sentence for
having sex with another prisoner while awaiting trial in January. 

In their judgment, the judges said the criminalisation of sodomy was
contrary to the Constitution. The Constitution says no person shall be
unfairly discriminated against on the grounds of race, gender, sex, ethnic
or social origin, colour or sexual orientation. It also says each person
has the right to privacy. 

Section 9.3 of the Constitution says homosexual activity has the same
constitutional status as heterosexual and that
punishment for sodomy between consenting adults in private is
unconstitutional. 

Consensual sexual acts between females did not constitute a crime and there
had been no case in which a woman had been
prosecuted for an act of this kind, Judge Farlam said. 

Describing the judgment as a victory for the Constitution, Mr Kevan Botha,
legal adviser to the National Coalition for Gay
and Lesbian Equality said: "It is long overdue. We welcome the ruling and
believe it will help to ensure that gay people are no
longer regarded as unapprehended felons. 

"This is a tremendous weight off people's minds. The very essence of how
gay people have defined themselves sexually has been a criminal offence." 

Of the country's prosecutions for sodomy, 65% had occurred in the Cape
Peninsula, Botha said. 

Ms Nicci Stein, head of the Triangle Project which offers counselling to
gay people, said the possibility of being prosecuted or criminalised for
being gay had had a huge impact on people's self-esteem. Many gay people
had laboured with this while coming to terms with their sexuality. 

Mr Zackie Achmat of the National Coalition hailed the ruling as a human
rights victory. Decriminalising sodomy removed discrimination against gays,
who were often tarred with the same brush as rapists. 

"Sodomy prosecutions combined gay people with rapists, especially in the
Cape, where people like the Station Strangler could be charged with sodomy
and two consenting adults with the same (offence). 

"These laws are outdated and combine non-consensual rape with consensual
sex between adults." 

Achmat hoped other laws that discriminated against gays would be lifted,
such as the Sexual Offences Act which criminalised any act that might
"stimulate sexual passion" between men, for example holding hands in public. 

He called for rape laws to be amended to include violent sexual crimes
against men. 

Western Cape Human Rights Commissioner Ms Rhoda Kadalie said the ruling was
a great victory for the gay liberation movement. 

However, the ruling is in conflict with the teachings of the Roman Catholic
Church. 

"The Catholic Church holds that sex is something only between a man and
woman who are married," said Monsignor Donald de Beer, vicar-general of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Cape Town. 

"Sex is a sacred way in which people co-operate with God to further human
life. It certainly should not be used for pleasure as between homosexual
males, for instance." 

All Material c copyright Independent Newspapers 1997.