Section 20A
Section 20A of the Immorality Act, 1957, commonly known as the "men at a party" clause, was a South African law that criminalised all sexual acts between men that occurred in the presence of a third person. The section was enacted by the Immorality Amendment Act, 1969 and remained in force until it was found to be unconstitutional in 1998 by the Constitutional Court in the case of "National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v Minister of Justice".

The text of the clause was the following:

The prescribed penalty was a fine of up to R4000 or imprisonment for up to two years or both.

"Sodomy" and "unnatural sexual acts" were offences in the Roman-Dutch common law of South Africa. These offences criminalised, "inter alia", anal sex, oral sex, intercrural sex and mutual masturbation between men, but did not apply to, for example, men merely touching or kissing each other. In January 1966 the police raided a gay party, at which about 300 men were present, in the Forest Town suburb of Johannesburg. This, and a number of subsequent raids on parties and clubs in various cities, led to a moral panic. Homosexuality (particularly male homosexuality) was unacceptable in the Afrikaner Calvinist ethos of the apartheid regime, and Parliament reacted by convening a Select Committee which, in 1968, proposed a number of amendments to the Immorality Act. One of these was the "men at a party" clause, which was consequently enacted in 1969.

In one notable case in 1987, a conviction under the section was reversed on appeal by the Supreme Court because the court ruled that "a party" was not created when a police officer entered a room in a gay bathhouse because the two men in the room jumped apart when he switched on the light.

The Interim Constitution adopted in 1994 after the end of the apartheid regime, and the final Constitution which replaced it in 1997, both prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex, gender or sexual orientation. In 1997 the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality launched a constitutional challenge in the Witwatersrand Local Division of the High Court, asserting that the laws against "sodomy" and "unnatural sexual acts" as well as the "men at a party" clause infringed the equality clause of the Constitution. The government did not oppose the application, and in May 1998 Judge Heher handed down a judgment and order striking down the impugned laws.

South African law requires that a court order invalidating an act of Parliament be confirmed by the Constitutional Court; in October 1998 that court handed down a unanimous judgment confirming Judge Heher's order. Writing for the court, Justice Lourens Ackermann described the clause as having an "absurdly discriminatory purpose and impact," and stated that, "There is nothing before us to show that the provision was motivated by anything other than rank prejudice."

Although it was already unenforceable because of the Constitutional Court's order, section 20A was formally removed from the statute-book by the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007.
Q7458676
Immorality Act, 1957
LOC
Q258
South Africa
LOC
Q7458676
Immorality Amendment Act, 1969
LOC
Q1133886
Constitutional Court
MEDIA
Q6971549
National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v Minister of Justice
EVE
Q181907
R
Concept
Q1656146
Sodomy
Concept
Q5185237
unnatural sexual acts
UNK
Q2395172
Roman-Dutch common law
MEDIA
Q8398
anal sex
Concept
Q2122
oral sex
Concept
Q1191660
intercrural sex
Concept
Q1840469
mutual masturbation
Concept
Q5469119
Forest Town
LOC
Q34647
Johannesburg
LOC
Q2914277
moral panic
Concept
Q2934542
Afrikaner Calvinist
ORG
Q11409
apartheid regime
Concept
Q2185780
Parliament
LOC
Q7644981
Supreme Court
MEDIA
Q1531507
gay bathhouse
Concept
Q2591169
Interim Constitution
EVE
Q60567
Constitution
LOC
Q6530257
National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality
ORG
Q6971549
a constitutional challenge
EVE
Q7055468
Witwatersrand Local Division
MEDIA
Q5755253
High Court
UNK
Q17089213
equality clause
ORG
Q6689799
Lourens Ackermann
PER
Q5185577
Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007
LOC
Q7444594
Section 20A
UNK
1957-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1957
DATE
1969-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1969
DATE
1998-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1998
DATE
1966-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
January 1966
DATE
1968-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1968
DATE
1969-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1969
DATE
1987-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1987
DATE
1994-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1994
DATE
1997-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1997
DATE
1997-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1997
DATE
1998-05-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
May 1998
DATE
1998-10-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
October 1998
DATE
2007-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2007
DATE
+20^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
20
NUMBER
+4000^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
4000
NUMBER
+20^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
20
NUMBER
country
point in time
court
point in time