Cape Town politician declares war on “f*g’s paradise”

The head of an obscure South African political party is desperately attempting to secure relevance on social media with threats to vandalise Cape Town’s rainbow crossing.

Despite having less than a thousand followers, Turkish-born Mehmet Vefa Dag, President of the Truth and Solidarity Movement Party, is going viral on Twitter with his vile one-man anti-LGBTIQ+ crusade.

Dag’s rant was sparked by retail giant Woolworth’s recent Pride campaign that’s outraged bigots across the country. In response, he tweeted: “Woolworths has publicly declared it’s a f*g’s paradise, shame on you.”

While that tweet appears to have now either been deleted or removed, the Putin-supporting and USA-hating Dag continued to lash out at the LGBTIQ+ community in a series of hateful posts.

He promised to “ban LGBT in South Africa” if he is voted into power and threatened to paint over the rainbow pedestrian crossing unveiled in Cape Town last year to celebrate the LGBTIQ+ community.

“We’re taking our road back this Sunday from the Devil Alliance, get your brushes ready with your black paint, at 1 o’clock on Greenpoint Somerset Rd,” Dag tweeted.

“We will paint the road black… We will save our children’s future from these freak colors. Cape Town, come and join us,” he said.

Dag also called on Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis to “remove LGBT colors from Cape Roads” and wrote: “You can be gay, but we are not gay; we are straight people of Cape Town… Don’t push into our communities your disgraceful agenda.”

Dag further urged the public to vote in his Twitter poll on whether the crossing should be repainted black. (After more than 6,000 votes, 71% had voted against the idea).

His posts have been viewed and liked thousands of times, giving Dag heightened visibility through the appalling but often effective political strategy of spewing and fueling hate against the LGBTIQ+ community.

Cape Town LGBTIQ+ group Triangle Project accused Dag of “thinking that our lives and politics are narrowly defended by symbolic gestures of solidarity like the rainbow flag.”

It added: “We live and die for our right to love, to have family, to be active citizens and contribute to building this. No flag will be weaponised against us. Too queer to be held ransom by distraction and deflection politics. Try again.”

In addition to his ambitious political aspirations, Dag is – according to his LinkedIn profile – a businessman who sells toilet paper, hand sanitizers, and bedding.

Mehmet Vedag making the same mistake as the DA. Thinking that our lives and politics are narrowly defended by symbolic gestures of solidarity like the rainbow flag. We live and die for our right to love, to have family, to be active citizens and contribute to building this pic.twitter.com/3QCrBMOLmK

— Triangle Project (@TriangleOrg) June 9, 2023