Pride Month exists to celebrate and raise awareness of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) community.
However, this weekend’s Johannesburg Pride event has been marred by controversy and calls to boycott the annual march over allegations that compromised corporate partners are supporting it.
“This so-called boycott appears to come from a collective of mischief-makers who chose not to engage with us directly or in good faith before making extreme accusations on social media,” founder and Director of Johannesburg Pride and Pride of Africa, Kaye Ally, told The Citizen.
The ‘collective mischief-markers’ which Ally refers to are the NoGoBurg Pride Organisers, who are a collective of queer, trans, non-binary, and allied individuals who came together around shared concerns about Johannesburg Pride.
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NoGoBurg Pride’s issue with Amazon
The group jotted an open letter addressed to Johannesburg Pride, calling out what they define as Johannesburg Pride’s exclusionary practices.
At the core of their concerns is Johannesburg Pride’s alleged sponsor, US company Amazon.
My organisation (House Of Ditsie) and I endorse this letter wholeheartedly. #notogenocide #notinmyname pic.twitter.com/vUcZA0yWHn
— Bev (@bevditsie) October 20, 2025
“Amazon is on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign list as part of a worker-led campaign to stop enabling settler colonial Israel with technology. Israel tries to pinkwash the genocide of Palestinians by masquerading as LGBT+ friendly, but not in our name,” reads NoGoBurg’s letter.
Amazon’s role in the context of the Gaza conflict primarily stems from its provision of cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) services to the Israeli government and military through the Project Nimbus contract, which critics and a UN expert report argue makes the company complicit in Israel’s actions, including the alleged genocide.
NoGoBurg’s complaints about Joburg Pride’s association with Amazon aren’t only about the Gaza conflict, but also how the tech company’s headquarters in Cape Town.
Years before the Amazon headquarters were officially opened in December 2023, local communities, environmentalists, and activists pushed to have the site where the headquarters were built declared a national heritage site.
The piece of land where the headquarters sit is significant to the history of the Khoi and San people. In 1510, the two indigenous groups drove back cattle-raiding Portuguese soldiers.
“This is where land was first stolen,” Tauriq Jenkins, of the Goringhaicona Khoena Council, told Al Jazeera in 2021 before the offices were built.
However, Joburg Pride’s Ally denies any association with Amazon.
“Johannesburg Pride’s response is straightforward,” said Ally.
“Amazon is not an official sponsor or partner for the 2025 event. We had engaged in preliminary discussions with them earlier in the year, but the partnership did not materialise, and they do not appear on our confirmed partner list for 2025.”
Ally adds that Johannesburg Pride was neither consulted nor engaged before the publication and circulation of the open letter, which blatantly states that Amazon is a partner.
“Pride remains guided by our values of inclusion, accountability, and community, and we carefully assess every potential partnership to ensure it reflects the spirit and integrity of Pride,” she said.
However, the Sponsors page on Johannesburg Pride’s website is inaccessible. As recently as March 2025, the company sponsored Cape Town Pride.
‘Non-purposeful Pride’
In the letter, NoGoBurg allege that in 2012, activists from the One in Nine campaign wanted a minute of silence for murdered black lesbians and transgender people, and to protest the corporatisation of Pride.
“The Joburg Pride organisers made it clear: their Pride is not for all of us.”
NoGoBurg Pride Organisers say Joburg Pride has become a mockery of the so-called intersectional rainbow country, missing the colour black.
“The awareness of class, race and capitalism is sorely non-existent in this non-purposeful Pride. We are saddened that this Pride has become nothing more than a sponsored party – selling corporate products and rainbow-washing the image of companies,” read the statement.
However, Ally says balancing their purpose as a protest and community-driven space with partnerships is challenging but essential.
“Our approach is never about ‘rainbow-washing’; rather, it is about leveraging support responsibly so that we can continue to provide free entry to Pride, a cornerstone of accessibility that ensures no barriers for the community to participate,” Ally told The Citizen.
She adds that Johannesburg Pride does not receive funding from any other source and that every corporate engagement is carefully evaluated to ensure it aligns with their values while enabling the event to exist.
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Founders of Joburg Pride
While Ally is the founder of Pride Africa, activists Simon Nkoli and Dr Beverley Palesa Ditsie founded Joburg Pride.
Pride without politics is homophobic.
(I said what I said) https://t.co/L5stSLDWi0— Bev (@bevditsie) October 20, 2025
The first Gay and Lesbian Pride march in Africa was held in Johannesburg on 13 October 1990.
Writing in the Daily Maverick, Cape Town-based author Herman Lategan describes the mood on that day as rebellious.
“It was a sweltering day. We were loud, proud, defiant.”
This is JHB Pride, 13 October 1990.
It is blatant erasure of these freedom fighters that your City is endorsing this weekend @DadaMorero @CityofJoburgZA #BoycottJHBPride https://t.co/48clRHwD0t pic.twitter.com/gG4Qqkr8Y7
— 🇵🇸•KAMVA•🇵🇸 (@kamvag_) October 22, 2025
Nkoli founded and established the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW) in 1988. He was a member of the International Lesbian and Gay Association board, representing the African region.
In 2023, UK-born composer Philip Miller and lyricist S’bo Gyre collaborated for the Nkoli: The Vogue Opera production.
Speaking to The Citizen, Gyre said it’s important to keep Nkoli’s legacy alive because he is the embodiment of what the modern-day queer expression looks and feels like.
“In being able to understand Simon Nkoli’s legacy and to learn and know it, is an important part of understanding the modern actualisation of queerness, that’s why Simon Nkoli is important. He set the path among other people as well; the zest and the effervescence with which he applied himself set him apart.”
The Feather Awards have an award named after him, given to iconic figures within the LGBTQIA+ community.
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Considering legal action
NoGoBurg Pride Organisers have called for a boycott of Johannesburg Pride.
Ally says Johannesburg Pride is committed to amplifying queer voices and supporting a diverse range of initiatives.
“At the same time, we are all citizens of this country and protected under the law, which includes protections against defamatory or misleading statements,” she says.
She adds that they are currently consulting on the legal ramifications of the behaviour exhibited in the NoGoBurg letter, as some actions and statements “have been defamatory and caused reputational harm”.
While there are alternative LGBTQIA+ events taking place this weekend, Ally says she would be open to collaborating with NoGoBurg and other organisers of the alternative movements.
“Any future collaboration would need to be approached with mutual respect, transparency, and adherence to legal and ethical standards, ensuring that all parties are aligned in purpose and approach.”
So you want to celebrate Pride but you really don’t want to support capitalism and genocide? Woza nabangani bakho 🙌🏽 pic.twitter.com/S3BPHi9icS
— Bev (@bevditsie) October 16, 2025
Joburg Pride co-founder Beverley Palesa Ditsie is hosting a picnic through her organisation, House of Ditsie.
On Thursday evening, Ditsie hosted The Legends Soirée, featuring a live auction of “bold, beautiful and cheeky queer treasures” donated by South African LGBTQI+ legends and icons.
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