Hate killings of black lesbians in South Africa
- Nechama Brodie
“We only write about them when they are dead."
This extract from the book 鈥楩emicide in South Africa鈥 (Kwela) by , Lecturer in the Wits School of Journalism and Media Studies, has been published by the :
鈥淚n the 1980s, the country鈥檚 ongoing rape crisis had started to take on chilling new aspects, including gang rapes that became known as 鈥溾. Jackrolling initially involved the selection and abduction of a victim, usually a woman who (her attackers believed) presented herself as if she was 鈥渂etter than them鈥 and 鈥渙ut of reach鈥. There were echoes of these sentiments in the growing number of stories that began to emerge during the 1990s of black lesbian women being targeted, being beaten and raped by men, supposedly as a means of 鈥渢eaching them how to be proper women鈥. This gradually became referred to as 鈥渃urative鈥 or 鈥渃orrective鈥 rape.鈥
鈥淚n 2006, not coincidentally the same year of Jacob Zuma鈥檚 , and the year when the National Assembly passed a law recognising same-sex marriage, local newspapers started reporting on murders where black lesbians had been being targeted and killed by groups of men.
In February 2006, 19-year-old openly lesbian soccer player was at a shebeen in Khayelitsha with another lesbian friend of hers when a group of straight girls taunted them for being tomboys. Zoliswa apparently replied, 鈥淲e are not tomboys, we are lesbians. We are just doing our thing so leave us alone.鈥
One of the (straight) women went and summoned a group of men, who pursued Zoliswa and her friend across a field, eventually catching up with Zoliswa (the friend managed to get away) before pelting her with bricks and beating her with a golf club until she died. It would take nearly six years and some 60 court appearances before four of the nine men eventually charged with her killing would be found guilty."
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