Melusi Simelane

Founding Director, Eswatini Sexual & Gender Minorities

ESWATINI

Melusi Simelane is the founding director of Eswatini Sexual & Gender Minorities, the country’s first membership-based LGBTQ organization, which aims to increase awareness of the social and systematic exclusion of LGBTQ citizens across the Southern Africa region. The organization’s approach is guided by the belief that long-term sustainable change comes through intersectional movement-building and fostering an environment of mutual respect. Melusi’s work aims to position LGBTQ rights as a central part of broader justice and human rights movements in Eswatini and across Southern Africa.

Melusi holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Eswatini. He was selected to participate in the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program.