Duduzile Zozo, a 26-year-old lesbian, is the latest person to die a violent death only because she had a different sexual orientation. Her mother, Thuziwe, says she believes her daughter was killed because of her sexuality. She was called to a scene in her neighbourhood of Thokoza, east of Johannesburg, where she found her daughter’s half-naked body with a toilet-cleaning brush shoved into her vagina as if to make a point of the hatred harboured by her attackers, who have yet to be apprehended.
Who will be next? Many other women are being abused and violated. A 17-year-old young woman who has suffered rape multiple times is currently facing murder charges for taking the law into her own hands and killing the last man that raped her. While murder can never be condoned, it is clear that desperation forced her to commit murder.
“Murders of gay people continue to occur because our laws are failing us,” says Steve Letsike, chair of SANAC’s Civil Society Forum. “It is really worth mentioning that laws are on paper. Although the government can condemn these killings, individuals in the community still need a paradigm shift in their ways of thinking. Being gay is not a crime and no one has the right to take anyone’s life. Even the Bible says so. While we continue to advocate for hate crime legislation to be enacted in South Africa, we believe that society as a whole needs to play a role in ensuring that the Constitutional rights of all South African citizens are protected, promoted and fulfilled by government and all citizens and ensure that the LGBTI community access their rights and enjoys them.”
“What happened to Duduzile is a violation of human rights and an assault on human dignity. Society should not tolerate the abuse and murder of women and men just because they are of a different sexual orientation. There are many unreported cases of lesbians and gays being killed and this is an indication that South Africa is not a free society,” says Rev. Mbulelo Dyasi, co-ordinator of SANAC’s men’s sector.
South Africa’s Constitution is regarded as the most progressive in the world, providing constitutional protection to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gendered and intersex (LGBTI) people, via section 9(3), which condemns discrimination on race, gender, sexual orientation and other grounds. But this does not seem to be a lived reality of this community.
SANAC CEO, Dr Fareed Abdullah warned that these hate crimes have the effect of reversing progress: “The killing of Zozo and many other lesbian women and gay men reverses the unique gains that we have made in our progressive Constitution. We are in danger of losing what we have struggled so hard to achieve in law.”
“The killings of gay women and men, coupled with the judgmental attitudes of society pose a threat to the implementation of the National Strategic Plan to address HIV and AIDS, as this will drive many men and women underground and stop them from accessing care and treatment out of fear of victimisation and being targeted,” warns Brian Kanyemba, co-ordinator of SANAC’s LGBTI sector.