MINISTER AGREES TO LESBIAN RAPE MEETING

Following international and local pressure, South Africa’s Justice Minister Jeff Radebe has finally agreed to meet with activists on the issue of the ‘corrective-rape’ of lesbians, in which women are raped to “cure” them of their lesbianism.

The small Cape Town based NGO Luleki Sizwe, which initiated an international petition urging the minister to take action on the matter, told Mambaonline that Radebe’s department has confirmed that he will meet with them.

“The meeting is going to happen,” Ndumie Funda from Luleki Sizwe told Mambaonline, “It’s just the date that needs confirmation from the ministry”.

According to Luleki Sizwe, around 500 women a year report being the victims of corrective rape while 31 lesbian women have been murdered because of their sexuality in the past few years.

The organisation is championing a campaign to have corrective-rape declared a hate crime in South Africa, although the country’s laws do not currently recognise the concept of a hate crime.

In the past, Radebe has dismissed the notion of looking at corrective-rape as a separate category of crime, insisting that “rape is rape regardless of the motive of the offender”.

Funda said that the group intends to present a “corrective rape intervention plan” to the ministry – including proposals for the NPA, SAPS, the ministry and parliament – ahead of the meeting.

She has proposed a meeting with the ministry on the 9th of March and to hold a press conference with Radebe on the 14th of March and is now “waiting with anticipation” for confirmation.

When asked if she expected her campaign to be successful, Funda replied: “I’m a positive person. When I decide to do something I don’t fail.”

Luleki Sizwe’s petition on Change.org has been signed by over 147,510 people around the world. For more information about the organisation and to contribute to its cause, visit www.lulekisizwe.com.