Controversial American Pastor Steven Anderson is going to struggle to find a hotel or restaurant to go to when he comes to South Africa.
The pastor, who hit the headlines in 2014 when he called for gay people to be executed, announced that he is coming to Johannesburg on September 18 for a “soul winning marathon”.
And the day after 49 people were recently killed in a nightclub in Florida, he said: “The good news is that there’s 50 less paedophiles in this world, because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and paedophiles.”
News of his imminent visit has been slammed by LGBTQI groups, including the Triangle Project and GayRadio SA, who asked the Department of Home Affairs to refuse him entry.
But Minister Malusi Gigaba says he cannot turn Anderson away.
“The minister empathises with the LGBT community but firstly Americans do not need visas to come to South Africa or any form of permission from the department. We feel that the comments made by the pastor were uncalled for but the law doesn’t allow us to turn away anyone from entering the country based on what they have said‚” his spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete said.
Premier Hotels and Resorts, Spur and Wimpy, which the pastor was supposed to visit, have all said they don’t want to do business with Anderson or even have him on their property.
Premier Hotels cancelled his booking, “when it was brought to our attention that some of the contents of his sermons contradict the Bill of Rights contained within the South African constitution.”
Wimpy and Spur followed suit.
Anderson has hit back on Facebook, telling his followers to give Premier Hotels “a 1 star review” for cancelling his reservation. “They didn’t even bother emailing us and telling us. We had to find out from their public facebook page!”
He also announced: “I’m hiring natives to translate all of my blog posts into Afrikaans language. Take that, South Africa!”