Black Looks

Last Sunday two more South African lesbians were brutally raped and murdered in Medowlands, Soweto. Sizakele Sigasa, lesbian activist and outreach worker with the Positive Women’s Network (PWN), and her friend, Salome Masooa, were first tortured and then murdered.

Sizakele was found with her hands tied together by her underpants and her ankles tied together by her shoelaces, with three bullet holes in her head and three in her collarbone.

Their rape and murders are part of a continuing and growing epidemic of hate crimes against lesbians. In June, Simangele Nhlapho , a member of a support group for women living with HIV run by PWN, was, along with her two year old daughter, raped and murdered. Her daughter’s legs were also broken. In April this year, 16 year-old Madoe Mafubedu, was raped and repeatedly stabbed until she died. There have been no arrests for any of these crimes and other sexual assault cases, all documented, against lesbians particularly Black lesbians in the townships. These hate crimes are part of the endemic misogyny and homophobia as well as the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS in South Africa that is destroying lives. Women comprise 58% of those living with HIV. The cause are many and complex….

gender discrimination often leaves them unable to negotiate condom use or disclose their status to their families and partners (who are often infected as well). Many women today are still afraid to be tested, and women receiving antiretroviral treatment have been known to hide their medicines under their beds for fear of bearing the brunt of physical abuse and alienation. Every six hours in South Africa a woman is killed by a male partner; every 26 minutes a woman is raped.

The Joint Working Group has issued a Press Statement demanding justice for these rapes and killings.

(July 9, 2007) The South African lesbian and gay communities through the Joint Working Group* and partner organisations STRONGLY CONDEMN the killing of Sizakele Sigasa (34) and Salome Masooa (23) from a township in Johannesburg. They were found (Sunday 8th July) murdered, execution style, in a nearby field in Meadowlands; a shocking image that is not so new in South Africa in the light of the recent increasein violence and rape against women either identified as, suspected of or supporting lesbian and gay rights.

Gays and lesbians are men and women, human beings who deserve equal rights and treatment not to be ridiculed or called names, beaten, tortured, raped or killed. These gross human rights violations are not just inhuman and barbaric – they must not be tolerated! Sizakele and Salomes killers, like everyone else, HAD NO RIGHT TO THREATEN OR KILL THEM!!

Violence against lesbians and gays is unSouth African. Here, oppression and discrimination have no place, still there are parents who reject or kick children out to the streets; siblings, friends and communities who hurt, beat, rape, torture and even kill lesbians and gays. If they survive all this, they face further victimisation at in the hands of the police and even the courts THIS IS NOT JUSTICE AT ALL. People who inflict harm upon and even kill lesbians and gays (or anyone else) do not belong in South Africa. Leaders and communities that do not oppose violence against gays, lesbians, women, children, rape survivors and HIV+ people do not belong here.

1) We call on the Meadowlands Police Services to investigate this matter efficiently and rigorously;
2) We call on other state bodies and communities to support the families by working with the Police and the Prosecuting Authorities towards ensuring that the killers are brought to book.

We express our deepest condolences to the bereaved families and friends. We offer our support to the colleagues and comrades as they mourn the death of these two precious women.

Source: Various email correspondence and lists, TAC Statement (Treatment Action Campaign) Joint Working Group (JWG network of LGBTI organisations and partners in South Africa.)

Tags: LGBTI; Hate Crimes; South Africa; Violence Against Women