YET ANOTHER LESBIAN RAPED & KILLED

It’s been reported that a new case of rape and murder of another lesbian woman has come to light; this time in KwaMashu, outside of Durban.

According to the Kwa-Zulu-Natal-based organisation LEXIT, Nqobile Khumalo went missing on the 3rd of May. The following day, her frantic family reported her missing to the authorities and began to search for her in mortuaries and hospitals.

On the 8th of May, Khumalo’s ex-boyfriend was identified as the last person to have been seen with her. When interrogated by police he allegedly confessed to killing her, apparently because he could not accept that she was in love with a woman and would not take him back.

The suspect took police to where he buried Khumalo’s body; in a shallow grave just meters away from her parents’ home in the township.

It appears that she was raped in addition to having been beaten and choked to death. LEXIT said that “her body was covered in bruises and her eyes had popped out of the sockets”.

The suspect is in police custody. Khumalo will be buried by her family on Thursday.

The murder is another in a seemingly endless epidemic of horrific attacks against lesbian women in South Africa, with at least five cases currently in the courts across the country.

Last week, a 13-year-old teen was raped in Pretoria, while the week before 24 year old lesbian activist Noxola Nogwaza was raped and brutally murdered in Kwa-Thema township, outside of Johannesburg.

The government recently announced that a task team will be set up to look at the issue of hate crimes against LGBT people, in particular the ‘corrective rape’ of lesbians.