Stop “Corrective Rape” in South Africa

It is with disgust and incredulity that I read daily about the heinous crime of “corrective rape” that is still taking place on the streets of South Africa, especially in the “African Townships” (basically poorer suburbs inhabited by Africans, such as Soweto, Gugulethu, Langa, Kayalitsha etc.) Corrective rape is “the rape of a lesbian by a man either to punish her or cure and correct her sexual orientation”.

Despite South Africa having a very liberal constitution, which forbids discrimination against LGBTs ( Lesbians, gays, Bisexuals and Transgendered persons), lesbian women are constantly being targeted in hate crimes, where the aim is for lesbian women, especially “butch” women to be beaten up and raped (often gang-raped) to “teach them what they are and what a woman should be like”,  sometimes by their own male friends.

Lesbians corrective rape in South Africa

According to Africans, the practice of homosexuality is not an African thing, but arrived with democracy and was brought to Africa by the West and the East! A total misconception of course, as homosexual behaviour can be traced back to MANY African tribes going back centuries:

Simon Nkoli , a great hero of the liberation struggle was convicted in the Delmas Treason Trial along with Nelson Mandela. Nkoli spent more than 20 years on Robben Island, and whilst in prison, he ‘came out’ as a Gay man to his fellow inmates and was accepted. After his release, he became the face of the struggle for lesbian and gay rights in Africa.

The legendary Rain Queen Modjadji, of the Balobedu people (who were the inspiration for F Ryder Haggard’s immortal novel “She”) never marries, but she bears children by her close relatives. She is cared for by her ‘wives’, which are sent from the many villages in Ga-Modjadji. Rumour has it that these “wives” did far more than provide her with her meals and afternoon tea.

One of the more prominent cases of “corrective-rape”, and one of the few to get any publicity was the case of Eudy Simelane, the 29-year-old who rose through the ranks to become captain of the Women’s National Football Team, Banyana Banyana, and was raped and murdered in April 2008 because of her sexual orientation. The top striker was set upon by a gang of thugs, gang-raped and stabbed 25 times. Her sexuality and supposedly butch looks were a death sentence in a country in which the sport is still considered a man’s game by many. The murder trial received mixed reactions from the public when only one of the accused was sentenced.

Ndumie Funda runs LulekiSizwe in her “cabin” in the township of Gugulethu near Cape Town. The project is named after her late fiancée, Nosizwe Nomsa Bizana, who was gang-raped by five men and subsequently succumbed to crypto meningitis, and Bizana’s friend Luleka Makiwane, who contracted HIV when she was raped and later died of AIDS.

“Corrective Rape” is a hate-crime of note, but the victims say that they do not have any confidence in the SA Police Service, as they are often mistreated or ignored when laying charges. They are also often assaulted by the very people who are supposed to uphold the law and protect them.

One in four South African men questioned in a survey by the country’s Medical Research Council, said they had raped someone, and nearly half of them admitted more than one attack. The survey also found that three out of four men who admitted rape had attacked for the first time during their teens.

The South African Government is paying lip-service to women and LGBTs, and is remiss in their duties of providing protection to the most vulnerable in society. Women do not feel safe in South Africa, and lesbian women even less so. It is time that the patriarchal government and leaders of the ruling party, the ANC, pull their fingers out and literally put their money where their mouths are and spend more on ensuring that women and children are safe! It would also benefit SA much more if we had a President who displayed good morals and did not use “culture” to cover for his philandering, as this sets a bad example to the African men he is supposed to be a role-model for!

I leave you with this question “Is it not time that South Africa had a Female President?”

I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God’s creation, woman, the object of our lust ~ Mohandas Gandhi~