murder and rape for all wrong reasons

By Mpumi Mathabela

May 9, 2006: Following eTV’s (South Africa’s only privately owned TV channel) 3rd degree programme last week, it became axiomatic that there’s an appalling propensity that has grown among people towards gay people, especially towards lesbians.

Debora Patta – producer and presenter of the programme, took some excursions to meet with some of the lesbians affected by hate crimes in the townships. Zoliswa Nkonyana – a young lesbian murdered recently, was one of the highlights in the programme.

Teenager such as Keba Sebetoane recounted her rape ordeal that took place in 2004 when she was raped by her friend, who masqueraded as a gay person, in a case which was spoiled and turned down by the doctor who diagnosed her.

Despite these few incidents like Sebetoane’s, The Medical Research Council of South Africa (MRC) reports that out of every nine rape victims only one reports the case. This could be one of the reasons men take advantage of raping women, not only lesbians.

Patta spoke to one young man who overtly testified that he would rape women who hang out with men, especially in the night. “We will rape them if they stay with us at night at drinking spree”, he asserted among a bevy of colleagues.

Some of the young men interviewed believed that lesbians ‘steal’ away their girlfriends, while they pretended to be men on the other side – and therefore they should be raped.

A platoon of gay women who appeared on the programme repudiated that saying that rapes occur because the police in this country are negligent when coming to gay rights. One of the women only known as Phumla said; “Policemen forget that they are police and become priests instead of handling the case. They give lesbian women sermons on homosexuality”. The police are seen to perpetrate the circumstances while victimising and ridiculing lesbians instead of protecting their rights according to the women.

Zanele Muholi – of Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), stresses on safety among gay people in general. When talking to Patta, Muholi couldn’t believe what the young men interviewed on TV felt about lesbians in South Africa. “Those were just a small number of men that were interviewed, imagine how many millions out there feel exactly the same. We are not safe, even gay men are not safe”, she concluded.