A GAY AND LESBIAN COMMUNITY PRESS RELEASE
WEEK: 09 -13 JULY 2007
Lesbian Killing: We Demand Justice!
(July 9, 2007) The South African lesbian and gay communities through the
Joint Working Group* and partner organisations STRONGLY CONDEMN the
killing of Sizakele Sigasa (34) and Salome Masooa (23) from a township
in Johannesburg. They were found (Sunday 8th July) murdered, execution
style, in a nearby field in Meadowlands; a shocking image that is not so
new in South Africa in the light of the recent increase in violence and
rape against women either identified as, suspected of or supporting
lesbian and gay rights.
Gays and lesbians are men and women, human beings who deserve equal
rights and treatment – not to be ridiculed or called names, beaten,
tortured, raped or killed. These gross human rights violations are not
just inhuman and barbaric – they must not be tolerated! Sizakele and
Salome’s killers, like everyone else, HAD NO RIGHT TO THREATEN OR KILL
THEM!!
Violence against lesbians and gays is unSouth African. Here, oppression
and discrimination have no place, still there are parents who reject or
kick children out to the streets; siblings, friends and communities who
hurt, beat, rape, torture and even kill lesbians and gays. If they
survive all this, they face further victimisation at in the hands of the
police and even the courts – THIS IS NOT JUSTICE AT ALL. People who
inflict harm upon and even kill lesbians and gays (or anyone else) do
not belong in South Africa. Leaders and communities that do not oppose
violence against gays, lesbians, women, children, rape survivors and
HIV+ people do not belong here.
1) We call on the Meadowlands Police Services to investigate this matter
- efficiently and rigorously;
2) We call on other state bodies and communities to support the families
by working with the Police and the Prosecuting Authorities towards
ensuring that the killers are brought to book.
We express our deepest condolences to the bereaved families and friends.
We offer our support to the colleagues and comrades as they mourn the
death of these two precious women.
MEMORIAL SERVICE: Thursday 12 July 2007, 12h00-15h00 (Epelegeng Centre)
FUNERAL: Saturday, 14 July 2007, 12h00 (Meadowlands Community Centre)
(Contact: Busi Kheswa, Gay and Lesbian Memory In Action, 011-717/4239/1963
Prudence Mabele, Positive Women’s Network, 078 383 9529)
For assistance in dealing with trauma and loss or for a debrief please
contact the:
UNISA Centre for Applied Psychology: 012 429 8089/8544 or OUT LGBT Well-
Being: 012-344-6500
Issued by Nonhlanhla Mkhize (031 301 2145) for the Joint Working Group
(JWG).
The JWG is a network of LGBTI organisations and partners in South
Africa. Our Vision is to strengthen the organised LGBTI sector to
maximise our response to LGBTI needs through partnerships, collective
use of resources, and drawing on the strengths of participating
organizations in contributing towards social justice and the
reconstruction and development of South African society.
I don’t define as a dyke so much anymore. My daughter, the five year old understands me as such because I think it’s important for her to understand how not like many of the other mothers her mother is. I skipped through this post multiple times, everytime trying to ride ahead of a tide of rage, impatience, incredulity, horror…more rage. I appreciate the words in the call out. My concern is the ways that queers sit inside our families and communities when nothing too awful is going on. We make do. We make peace with people who are not peaceful. We smile with people who would see us remain tortured by the closet. We debate with people who sap our energies and still walk away steeped willingly in homophobia and heterosexual privilege. The words in this post are words that need to be offered time and time again…in the “good” times. When we wait until deaths and murderings and rapings and maimings to speak the rage resting at our cores, the rage and defiance we feel in the face of our own oppression, really it ends up feeling like too little too late. The “good” times are when those who oppress or who turn a blind eye to our oppression, pave the way toward acts such as these. Their self imposed ignorance, unearned privilege and belief in the inherent superiority of heterosexuality allows them to stand to one side and just shake their heads when individual members of our tribes are bashed and killed. Fuck. I’m remembering how many times I’ve had dykes, black dykes looking at me as if to say: Don’t rock the boat. Nah, I won’t rock the boat. I don’t rock the boat. I was just trying to speak out when homophobia and heterocentrism made room for others to rock it, tip us out of the boat and drown us while they watched clucking their teeth and pointing out that we should behave better and not show so much, not be so out, not kiss in public, not be so stupidly proud of who we are. fuck.