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Activists concerned about scourge of hate crimes against LGBTQI+ community

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The LGBTQI+ community says they are under siege in South Africa and activists fear the situation will worsen should the law not change. This as a flight attendant, Aubrey Boshoga, was found outside his Johannesburg home last weekend. His body had multiple stab wounds. Boshoga’s death has sparked an outcry in what is believed to be a hate crime.

Member of the of the LGBTQI+ community, influencer and socialite, Tinyiko “TK Goldfish” Mathebula, says the International Pride Month celebrations have been marred by fear .

“The LGBTQI+ community lives in constant fear. Fear of being discriminated against in communities and in the workplace. Fear being murdered. In recent months we found out of at least 11 members of our community who have been brutally murdered.  Recently, we found out about the death of a dear friend Aubrey Boshogo affectionately known as “Ma Se Kind”. When is it going to stop? Enough is enough. We cannot continue to live our lives in fear. We will continue fighting and plea with the government to help us fight the scourge of death in our community. We are also human, we deserve to be loved and live our truth.”

Hate Crimes Manager at the OUT organisation, Roche Kester, says new strategies have to be put in place as many members of the LGBTQI+ community do not feel safe in South Africa.

“Aubrey is the most recent of 11 public hate crimes in the last months. The death of a LGBTI person calls for a variety of mitigating factors, like obtaining the case number, escalating the case to existing task teams that serve LGBTI persons. It also requires implanting more effective preventative and reactionary strategies for the protection of LGBTI persons in a time when queer people do not feel safe.”

Kester says except for condemning the senseless murders, there is no outrage from government.

“Hate Crimes have always been a fixture in relation to LGBTI lives. These recent brutal attacks are only a fraction of the crimes that are experienced by LGBTI individuals. Due to secondary victimization and the nature of certain cases (specifically sexual assault and discrimination) the true reflection of the extent of hate crimes has not been adequately recorded or reported.  At our legal clinic we receive daily reports of discrimination and violent attacks and these do not often make the news. The truth is LGBTI lives are under siege in South Africa and without the correct legislative and practical implementations of the law, it will remain this way.”

Boshogo is not alone. A 19-year-old woman was gang-raped by three men in Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria in December last year, for being a lesbian.

Two of the accused in the case have pleaded guilty but a third remains at large. Zaheeda Munyai, a legal assistant at Access Chapter 2, says this is what’s known as corrective rape.

“The motive of this incident was that they wanted to change her, they wanted to show that she is a woman. So it is more related to corrective rape. One can say that this is not the first case that we are dealing with in Atteridgeville within the LGBTQI+ community. Therefore it clearly shows that the rate of crime is rising each and every day.”

Munyai says a lot still needs to be done to protect the queer community.

“With all these cases and all the brutal killing in the past couple of months, there is still a lot that needs to be done within the society we are living in. As much as they can accept that there are LGBTQI + people, it clearly shows that they don’t respect them. Because if they do, we were not going to be having these killings that have been happening and all the corrective rape matters. More education is needed within the society that we are living in so that we are able to be safe.”

Meanwhile, activists and allies of the LGBTQI+ community, have lambasted relevant authorities for the slow introduction of the Hate Bill. The Hate Crimes Bill is currently delayed due to a pending Constitutional Court case ruling before Parliament can pass the new law.

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