SA Traditional Leaders want gay rights removed from the Constitution

The National House of Traditional Leaders in South Africa wants to remove a clause from the Constitution which protects people on the grounds of sexual orientation, City Press reported on Sunday.

The organisation was responding to an annual invitation by Parliament's constitutional review committee to submit suggestions for Constitutional amendments.

The clause, in section nine of the Constitution, reads: "The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.

ANC MP Patekile Holomisa, who chairs the constitutional review committee, said sexual orientation was a difficult subject.

"The last time this issue was discussed was about same-sex marriages. Most of the people in the caucus were opposed to it, but then Luthuli House and the leadership instructed us to vote for it," he was quoted as saying.

Holomisa heads the Congress of Traditional Leaders.

The ANC caucus would debate whether the matter should be discussed in Parliament, the weekly reported.