South Africa on Tuesday
banned a Holocaust-denying, anti-gay American pastor from entering the
country, after an outcry from rights groups over his characterisation of
gays as “sodomites” and “paedophiles”.
Steven Anderson, who in 2009 infamously
prayed for US President Barack Obama’s death, had planned a
“soul-winning” visit to South Africa at the weekend.
But Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba
declared the Christian preacher a “prohibited person” following
objections over his “hate speech”.
“Steven Anderson and members or
associates of his church are prohibited from entering the Republic of
South Africa,” Gigaba said at a press conference in Cape Town.
“We have a duty to prevent harm and
hatred, in all forms, against LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual
and intersex) as against any other person in a democratic state,” the
minister said.
Anderson has frequently courted
controversy through his Arizona-based Faithful Word Baptist Church,
which preaches a literal reading of the Bible.
A Holocaust denier, he prayed for the
death of US President Barack Obama in 2009 over his pro-choice stance on
abortion, and called the victims of the November 2015 attack on the
Bataclan nightclub in Paris “devil worshipers”.
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