ANOTHER LESBIAN MURDERED, POSSIBLY RAPED

A 25-year-old lesbian woman has been found murdered in Durban’s Inanda township. It’s suspected that she was raped before she was killed.

According to KwaZulu-Natal-based organisation LEXIT, Mandisa Mbambo was found by her family last Sunday, 26 August, when they went to wake her.

Her hands were tied and she had a swollen and bruised face, with stab wounds across her body.

Some reports say that she was found under her bed and that her pants had been pulled down, suggesting that she might also have been raped.

The openly-lesbian Mbambo, described as a soccer fan and player, is reported to have had an argument with a man while out with friends on the Saturday night.

It is suspected that she was followed home by the man, who is alleged to have previously made sexual advances towards her.

A murder case has been opened. No arrests have yet been made.

Mbambo’s brutal death adds to the growing tally of attacks and murders of LGBTI people across South Africa. Lesbian women in particular have been targeted in “corrective rape” attacks and murders.

South Africa does not yet have hate crime legislation in place and efforts by the government to tackle the incidents of LGBTI attacks have failed due to bureaucratic red tape and the often hostile and ineffectual criminal justice system.