Simon Tseko Nkoli (26 November 1957 – 30 November 1998) was an anti-apartheid, gay rights, and AIDS activist in South Africa. His anti-apartheid activism as an openly gay man influenced the African National Congress (ANC) to publicly support gay rights and to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in the South African constitution. He organized South Africa's first pride march and was one of the first Black South Africans to disclose that he was living with HIV/AIDS. In his activism, he utilized visibility as a tactic and spoke about the relationship between multiple forms of discrimination. His death from AIDS-related illness influenced fellow activists to establish the Treatment Action Campaign which successfully lobbied the government to expand access to HIV treatment.
Born in Soweto, Nkoli lived with his grandparents in Orange Free State for several years and later moved in with his mother in Sebokeng. Nkoli first became involved in anti-apartheid activism as a high school student during the 1976 Soweto uprising, later becoming active in the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), the United Democratic Front (UDF), and the Vaal Civic Association. Because of his activism, he was repeatedly detained by the police, sometimes for extended periods of time. During the Vaal uprising, he was arrested and imprisoned with 21 other anti-apartheid leaders in 1984. Their charges, which included treason, terrorism, and murder, carried a potential death sentence. During their years-long Delmas Treason Trial, Nkoli was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and came out as gay to his co-defendants. His case gained international attention and a support campaign, especially among the LGBTQ community. The Gay Association of South Africa (GASA), the predominantly white organization Nkoli had joined before his arrest, did not offer any support to Nkoli during the trial, provoking criticism from foreign LGBTQ organizations.
After his acquittal in 1988, he co-founded the Gay and Lesbian Organization of Witwatersrand (GLOW), a multi-racial organization that hosted political rallies and social events. At South Africa's first pride march, he made a speech stating that he was fighting against both racism and homophobia and could not fight one without also fighting the other. With the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality (NCGLE), he lobbied successfully for anti-sodomy laws to be overturned and for anti-gay discrimination to be prohibited in the South African constitution. Nkoli co-founded the Township AIDS Project to provide education about HIV prevention to Black people, especially gay men in the townships. As a health educator, he took a sex positive, harm reduction approach. Like many South Africans, Nkoli struggled to consistently access effective HIV/AIDS treatment, and he vocally criticised the government's response to the epidemic.
Early life and family Nkoli was born on 26 November 1957 in Phiri, Soweto, a Black township in the Johannesburg area. His family spoke Sotho, and he was the oldest of four children. When he was 9 years old, Nkoli had to conceal his parents from the police in a cabinet because they lived in an area forbidden to them by the apartheid-era Group Areas Act. He later recounted this experience in "Wardrobes" in the anthology Defiant Desire: Gay and Lesbian Lives in South Africa and compared his experiences of racism to his experiences of homophobia:the closet I have come out of is similar to the wardrobe my relieved parents stepped out of when I unlocked them after the police left. If you are black in South Africa, the inhuman laws of apartheid closet you. If you are gay in South Africa, the homophobic customs and laws of this society closet you. If you are black and gay in South Africa, well, then it really is all the same closet, the same wardrobe. Inside is darkness and oppression. Outside is freedom.After Nkoli's parents separated, he lived with his grandparents on a farm and attended primary school in Orange Free State for several years. He later moved in with his mother and step-father in Sebokeng, a township in the Vaal Triangle area. Nkoli's family was working class. His mother, Elizabeth, worked in housekeeping and retail while his step-father, Elias, cooked for a hotel. He attended several schools including Lebohang Junior Secondary School and St. Bosco Boys High School.
Elizabeth was upset when Nkoli came out as gay. Hoping to change his sexual orientation, she took him to multiple sangoma healers, a Christian clergyman, and a psychologist. The psychologist encouraged Nkoli to accept his sexual orientation. Nkoli later called himself "lucky" that, instead of disowning him, his mother "tried to help me, in the ways that she knew how". Eventually, Elizabeth accepted Nkoli's sexual orientation, and they maintained a relationship throughout his life. She died in 2023, 25 years after Nkoli's death.
Early activism Nkoli first became involved in activism in high school, organizing students and spearheading a campaign opposing Afrikaans as his school's language of instruction during the 1976 Soweto uprising. During the uprising, he was arrested for the first time. Nkoli was active in several groups including Young Christian Students, Young Christian Workers, and Vaal Youth Crusade.
While attending secretarial college in Johannesburg in 1980, Nkoli joined the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), an anti-apartheid group. He became secretary for its Vaal Triangle branch while his close friend Gcina Malindi served as chair. At the time, the Vaal Triangle branch primarily organized around student concerns and rent increases. After Nkoli came out as gay to his colleagues in COSAS, the group debated whether he should give up his position as secretary, with some arguing that homosexuality is "un-African". Ultimately, 80% of the group voted for him to continue as secretary.
Affiliated with both the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the then-banned African National Congress (ANC), Nkoli gave speeches and participated in marches, boycotts, and sit-ins. He was frequently detained by the police for his activism, sometimes for months at a time. On several occasions, his mother was harassed by police who came to her home looking for him. Additionally, Nkoli worked at the South African Institute of Race Relations and assisted political prisoners via the Detainees Support Committee.
In 1983, Nkoli joined the Gay Association of South Africa (GASA). A mostly white organization which considered itself to be apolitical, GASA occasionally released statements denouncing homophobia and did not publicly condemn apartheid. Nkoli opposed GASA's apolitical stance and was unable to attend many of their events because they were held in white-only locations. In an effort to create a more Black-inclusive space within GASA, Nkoli recruited new members via the City Press. They met on Saturdays—initially at the GASA office but later at members' homes in Soweto after white members complained that they were disruptive. Nkoli felt that GASA tokenized their Black members, to misrepresent the group as non-racist to the international gay community. In May 1984, Nkoli and the new members formed the Saturday Group, a GASA-affiliated organization that aimed to be a place for gay people of all races. According to Nkoli, the Saturday Group primarily provided counseling to gay Black people but also organized parties and had white members. Nkoli estimated that it had 124 members when he was arrested in September 1984, after which it disbanded. The Vaal Civic Association (VCA) was formed in 1983 to organize around socio-economic issues in the Vaal Triangle area, including housing, transportation, and labor rights. It was affiliated with the UDF. Nkoli, who was active in the VCA, engaged in tenant organizing and gave speeches in support of rent strikes. On 3 September 1984, the VCA organized a general strike and march. Although the organizers had intended for the protest to be nonviolent, it escalated into widespread rioting after the police attempted to halt the march. According to Nkoli: "The police as usual intervened. They wanted the march to disperse. People became angry. Police started shooting at our people, setting dogs on them. There were police casspirs all over the place... By 11 a.m. lots of people had been shot dead." The unrest, known as the Vaal uprising, spread to other areas and continued into 1986.
Delmas Treason Trial On 23 September 1984, Nkoli attended the funeral of a student activist who had been killed in the Vaal uprising. At the burial, the police attacked the mourners, beating them with sjamboks and firing tear gas. Nearly 600 people were arrested for attending an "illegal gathering". The known activists, including Nkoli and Malindi, were separated from the other detainees by the Security Branch and severely beaten again. For at least nine months, Nkoli was held without charge, mostly in solitary confinement. The police interrogated Nkoli about his political views and sexuality, particularly about his relationships with white men. They told him that the ANC would never accept him because he was a moffie, a slur for a gay man. He later recounted that the police would "bring in things like a baton and tell me to go fuck myself with it. They also said they'd put me in prison with others and get me raped."
In June 1985, Nkoli and 21 other political leaders were charged with treason, murder, terrorism, and furthering the aims of the ANC, a banned organisation. Largely related to the Vaal uprising, the charges carried a potential sentence of death, and the defendants were denied bail. Their trial became known as the Delmas Treason Trial because of its initial location in the small town of Delmas. It was later moved to the Palace of Justice in Pretoria. The defendants included Malindi as well as high-ranking anti-apartheid leaders Terror Lekota, Popo Molefe, and Moss Chikane. Most of the defendants, like Nkoli, were affiliated with the UDF. Their legal team included George Bizos, Zak Yacoob, and Caroline Heaton-Nicholls.Towards the end of 1985, Nkoli and his co-defendants were moved to Modderbee Prison. While discussing a love letter between two male prisoners, some of Nkoli's co-defendants made homophobic comments. Nkoli responded angrily, saying: "You’re actually talking about homosexual men and I am one." His disclosure sparked several weeks of debate among the defendants. Fearing that Nkoli's sexual orientation would damage their public support, some argued that he should be tried separately. Others, including Malindi, supported him. Nkoli argued that homophobia and racism were equally objectionable. Their legal team advised against separate trials and asked the defendants to be nicer to Nkoli. In the end, Nkoli's co-defendants generally became more accepting of his sexual orientation, especially Lekota and Chikane, and they were all tried together.
As news of the trial spread, Nkoli gained supporters in Europe and North America, inspiring anti-apartheid activism, especially in the gay community. A group of Canadians, including Tim McCaskell, founded the Simon Nkoli Anti-Apartheid Committee (SNAAC) in Toronto. The City of London Anti-Apartheid Group campaigned in support of Nkoli during their Non-Stop Picket of the South African Embassy. Nkoli received correspondence from his international supporters, including more than 150 Christmas cards in 1986. He later stated that his global support campaign "helped the ANC to see that a human rights struggle without a gay rights dimension was unacceptable".