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Lively clubs, chic resorts and gorgeous boutique hotels – it’s no wonder that South Africa scores so highly with gay and lesbian travellers. Many enjoy holidays here year after year and plenty have snapped up second homes in the Cape. With well over 4000 British same-sex couples predicted to tie the knot in 2006, is South Africa set to become one of the world’s hottest gay and lesbian honeymoon destinations, too? John Malathronas investigates.
 The seismic shift in the laws concerning homosexuality is one of the most striking – and, looking at neighbours such as Zimbabwe, unexpected – turn of events in the new South Africa. After the deep-freeze imposed by the Dutch Reformed Church during the apartheid era, the dizzying changes that have taken place in the last decade or so have caught many by surprise.
The first indication that social reform was afoot came with the passing of the first post-apartheid Constitution on 12 December 1996 whereby South Africa became the first country in the world to ban discrimination of every kind. Clause 9(3) explicitly states: “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 origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth” and, frankly, you can’t be more exhaustive than that.
Once the censorious straitjacket of apartheid was lifted and South Africa began to connect with the world as it was, rather than as the regime wanted to portray it, its population revealed itself to be more broad-minded than anyone had predicted. While the ordination of gay clergy remains the subject of internal strife in the Church of England, gay priests have quietly and unassumingly been accepted in South Africa. Rowan Smith, the Dean of the Cathedral of St George the Martyr in Cape Town, came out openly in 1998 with the support of Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, head of the South African Anglican church. It also looks as if South Africa will be the first African country to adopt same-sex marriage legislation after a legal challenge by a lesbian couple. In December 2005, the Constitutional Court declared that the two women should be allowed to marry and gave Parliament until 1 December 2006 to provide legal marital rights for same-sex couples.
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It is this pervading climate that has brought South Africa to the top of the list of destinations for Britain’s new gay honeymooners. “We have just started arranging civil partnership packages,” says Darren Cooper of Gaydar Travel in Twickenham, UK. “Our clients prefer locations with liberal homosexuality laws where they are not going to be harassed. South Africa – Cape Town in particular – is one of the places we recommend, along with Hawaii and Sydney.”
“We’ve had two British honeymooning couples already”, agrees Tony Mariano, the co-owner of The Glen Hotel in Cape Town, an immaculately designed 4-star boutique hotel, more Moorish than modish, with marble bathrooms, large steam rooms, shaded swimming pools and heated floors. “When they told us they were coming here for their honeymoon, we upgraded their room at no extra cost and surprised them.” According to Tony, they did what conventional honeymoon couples tend to do in South Africa: travel around seeing as much as possible, stopping at romantic places en route and crowning their voyage with a safari.
As far as romantic places go, you can’t do better than Knysna, the gastronomic capital of South Africa, with its lush vegetation and its tranquil lagoon. I personally remember fondly the superb dinner I had at the restaurant at Knysna Hollow, a secluded country estate with warm, friendly service and excellent cuisine, the perfect base from which to explore the surrounding area. As Clive Battell, the owner, told me: “We are quite happy to have gay honeymooners stay at Knysna Hollow and will arrange for a fruit basket and bottle of sparkling wine in their room on arrival.”
And as for safaris, where better to spend it than in the Kruger Park, the godfather of all game parks? One of the adjoining private reserves, the luxurious Ulusaba, owned by none other than Richard Branson, was voted Top Honeymoon Safari Destination in 2002. But would they accept same-sex couples?
“Certainly”, replies Miriam Brown from Virgin Marketing unhesitatingly and offers me a plethora of packages for honeymoons, weddings and assorted activities that would require the single-minded dedication of a jubilant mother-in-law to wade through. Did I say weddings? Indeed, you can even arrange your own ceremony by contacting the Johannesburg-based Reverend Moira de Swardt, a Registered Marriage Officer who can provide you with a “non-denominational Christian or inter-faith blessing or a personalised secular service with a warm, friendly tone,” as she reassured me herself.
Suppose a couple came independently – would they be able to arrange their tour upon arrival? Sure, and if they are in Cape Town, they can do everything ‘in the family’. There are guides who offer gay-only tours around Cape Town, from the Winelands and the Peninsula to the full Garden Route and, with company names like Friends of Dorothy Tours, Capetonians seem to be shouting it from the top of Table Mountain.
Jaco Robbertse from Ulysses Tours, based in Pretoria, is more circumspect. “Gauteng has a more formal, corporate feel than the leisurely Western Cape, but there are gay-friendly establishments throughout the province. The upmarket hotels in Mpumalanga cater mainly for the overseas market so ‘anything goes’. Double beds might have to be requested at some lodges but no one will raise an eyebrow. It might be different at a small town B&B, but we use several accommodation establishments and have never experienced any problems.”
Despite the talking-up by operators, however, it would be wrong to assume that attitudes in South Africa have changed as rapidly as the legislation. Among many black Africans, homosexuality is still an ‘un-African’ taboo subject. Nowhere is this more pronounced than among the Zulu, whose pejorative name for a homosexual is inkonkoni, meaning wildebeest, because of its silly, prancing walk. Indeed, I struggled to find a gay-friendly resort in KwaZulu Natal and when I thought I’d found one and asked whether they would welcome a same-sex couple, the receptionist gasped and passed me to the manager who in turn told me to talk to the general manager – who wasn’t there.
A final word of caution then: non-discriminatory legislation is one thing but the odd person can still make your stay rather unwelcome – you know, like burning your toast or spilling your conditioner – so you’d do well to plan ahead and check your itinerary with a specialist operator who has plenty of first-hand knowledge.
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