A Time of Hurt: lesbians raped, tortured and murdered
on July 12, 2007
Category: South Africa, LGBTI, African Women, Gender Violence
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.
FUNERAL: Saturday, 14 July 2007, 12h00 (Meadowlands Community Centre)
(Contact: Busi Kheswa, Gay and Lesbian Memory In Action, 011-717/4239/1963
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
Sphere: Related Content
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20 Comments so far
1. Taking Place » Blog Archive » A Time of Hurt: lesbians rape, tortured and murdered
July 12th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
[…] Cross posted from Black Looks […]
2. Rethabile
July 13th, 2007 at 5:34 am
What does one say to such barbarism? Where do we start as a people, to teach and heal and get on with our lives?
3. Mari
July 13th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
I echo Rethabile. This is shocking and depressing.
What does one do when the leadership in these countries and Africa as a whole do not condemn these artrocious Acts?
4. elle
July 13th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
This just hurts.
5. Changeseeker
July 14th, 2007 at 11:45 am
This is too painful. I have written and erased three comments on as many days. How sick the human race has become. And why is this stuff happening? Rest in peace, Sizakele and Salome. Please forgive us for not protecting you somehow.
6. Lesbians Raped, Tortured and Murdered
July 14th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
[…] Sokari. Please repost. North American queers, especially. Last Sunday two more South African lesbians were […]
7. Women of Color Blog » Lesbian African Women, Violence, Solidarity
July 15th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
[…] The Violence Continues 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. … 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…. […]
8. Changeseeker
July 15th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
I linked to this post and the next one here.
9. Rape and murder of Black lesbians in SA » The Primary Contradiction
July 15th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
[…] Last week a lesbian activist and her friend became the latest of these victims. As Sokari from Black Looks states: Their rape and murders are part of a continuing and growing epidemic of hate crimes against […]
10. Global Voices Online » South Africa: two lesbian activists tortured, murdered
July 16th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
[…] Looks writes about the brutal murder of two South African lesbian activists: “Last Sunday two more South African lesbians were brutally raped and murdered in Medowlands, […]
11. Dave Lucas >> The Dark Side
July 17th, 2007 at 1:33 am
While none of the above is the worst of what one might find while surfing the world wide Web, all of it is disturbing. These things are going on around us on a regular basis, and we should be aware. Not scared, but aware.
12. Joan Kelly
July 17th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
I’m horrified but not shocked by it. How I wish it were shocking that women are murdered and raped, that black women are murdered and raped and it never makes it to Nancy Grace, that black lesbians here in the U.S. and in South Africa and I’m sure other places as well are attacked and disregarded and disappeared. I don’t know why people hate and harm, but I do know that it means something for you, and Brownfemipower who cross posted about this, to care that it’s happening, and to say that it matters. It adds something even more unbearable when *anybody* doesn’t care, doesn’t think it matters, never mind lots-of-anybodies. So, thank you for this.
13. Global Voices auf Deutsch » Blog Archive » Südafrika: Lesbische Aktivistinnen gefoltert und ermordet
July 17th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
[…] Looks schreibt über den brutalen Mord an zwei lesbischen Aktivistinnen in Südafrika: „Letzten Sonntag wurden zwei weitere südafrikanische Lesben in Medowlands, Soweto, brutal […]
14. Sokari
July 18th, 2007 at 5:36 am
Joan@ Thank you - The silence is very loud so it is heartening to know there are people who care and care enough to write about how they feel.
15. kate
July 20th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
i may not be black, but i am a lesbian and a survivor….we need to take a stand and fight back. Be brave sisters…we will overcome. It is only the truly disempowered that need to use such brute force….we need to pity them, because their lives are surely pits of misery and hell. why else the need to murder and rape…no respect for SA men until they prove they are worthy!!
16. Kellie
October 25th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
i was drown to this cua im a lesbian a mother of two girls 11& 13 but i have also been rape by men who said that they can change me all i need is a good fuck and all will be well im a jamaian and its hard here as jamaica is reated as the #1 homophic country in the world so i am here too fighting for our rights not as lesbian but as humans
17. Sokari
October 26th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Kellie @Thank you for sharing your life story. I have heard that Jamaica is hard very hard. But I hope things will begin to get a little better with some of the reggae artists coming out against homophobic lyrics etc in their music. In solidarity and my thoughts are with you and your sisters
18. Courtney
December 3rd, 2007 at 4:48 am
Its Sick Shit!
19. dewayne
December 17th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
it unfair as my lesbian sisters arebeing muraped and murdered. I pray something should be done bout it.And the perpetrators will not go free. thanks
20. Black Looks
May 5th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
[…] and murdered in South Africa on Monday 28th April. Sizakele Sisgasa and Salome Masooa were tortured and murdered just 10 months ago. Since then lesbians, gays and transsexuals across the continent - Nigeria, […]