The Department of Home Affairs is allowing an anti-gay pastor from America into the country, but said it would be attaching “serious conditions”.
United States pastor, Steven Anderson, notorious for saying “kill the gays” will be landing in SA later this month for a “soul-winning mission”.
This comes after the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) petitioned Home Affairs to ban Anderson from entering SA.
Anderson is scheduled to preach in Johannesburg on September 18.
Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said the department had considered the letter from the SA Human Rights Commission with 60 000 signatures carefully, and the position of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.
“If it is his intention to visit South Africa again, it would be in his best interest to behave in accordance with our laws. We have a precedent regarding a US citizen on which we acted decisively, for the person to leave the country,” Gigaba said.
“There will be serious conditions attached to this visit; we will not hesitate to deport or charge him for wrongdoing.”
Anderson was in the news recently after he reportedly told congregants at his Arizona-based Faithful Word Baptist Church that there are now “50 less paedophiles in this world” following the June 12 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 49 people dead.