Today’s Issues - “The Constitution is beautiful on paper but in reality, it is not”
Since 2000, there have been close to 40 lesbians murdered and on average about ten lesbians are raped each week by men who subscribe to the view that they are ‘correcting’ the women’s sexual orientations. Qualitative studies have revealed perpetrators’ claims that rape will ‘cure’ lesbians (of their lesbianism) and make them heterosexual. Gay men have also often been victimised and terrorised. In the early 2010s about eight gay men were killed by a gang of serial killers.
Thus, despite constitutional protection, the escalating and brutal violence the LGBTQIA+ community faces is shocking. The Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW) and others have been speaking out against this form of violence since the 2000s. The Anti-Hate Crime Task Force was established and mandated to develop a response to violence against LGBTI communities. However, police do not keep separate statistics on murders motivated by homophobia making it difficult to develop a viable policy to combat hate crime.
It is a sad truth that in our nation the LGBTI community are amongst the most vulnerable and marginalised. They suffer discrimination, violence and abuse … Every South African must hold themselves, our communities, our institutions and our government accountable for upholding our laws and for protecting the rights of all in South Africa.
Cyril Ramaphosa in 2017
President of South Africa
Some of the many women killed for their sexual orientation.
Zoliswa Nkonyana (1987-2006) lived openly as a lesbian. She was clubbed and kicked to death in Khayelitsha in 2006. Out of the Box by the Atlantic Philanthropies
Sizakele Sigasa (1973-2007) and Salome Masooa (1984-2007)
Sizakele Sigasa (pictured) was a prominent human rights activist and outreach worker for the Positive Women’s Network. She played an important role in the formation of the national strategy to combat HIV and AIDS. The couple were gang-raped and shot dead in Meadowlands, Johannesburg in 2007. Out of the Box by the Atlantic Philanthropies
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Simangele Nhlapo (Unknown-2007) was a member of a support group for women living with AIDS. She was raped and murdered. Her two-year-old daughter was raped and left with both her legs broken in 2007.
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Madoe Mafubedu (1991-2007) was living openly as a lesbian. She was raped and repeatedly stabbed to death.
Eudy Simelane (1977-2008) was a South African footballer who played for the South African women’s national football team, Banyana Banyana and an LGBT-rights activist. She was abducted, gang-raped, beaten, stabbed 25 times in the face, chest, and legs and murdered in her hometown of KwaThema, Springs, Gauteng in 2008. A miniature bridge was erected in KwaThema in her honour in 2009.
Out of the Box by the Atlantic Philanthropies
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Nokuthula Radebe (1991-2011) was found dead in the Thokoza township south of Johannesburg. Few media outlets reported the death or linked it to her sexual orientation.
Noxolo Nogwaza (1987-2011) was an LGBT rights activist, mother of two, and member of the Ekurhuleni Pride Organising Committee. She was raped, stoned, and stabbed to death by assailants in KwaThema. A few weeks later, a 13-year-old lesbian girl from Atteridgeville in Pretoria became the latest victim of ‘corrective rape’. ABC News
Motshidisi Pascalina Melamu (1995-2016) had just finished high school and had a passion for football. She was raped and killed in Evaton, Johannesburg.
BBC News
