Today in History: Former Banyana Banyana player, Eudy Simelane, is found raped and murdered
Her rape was a reaction to her sexual orientation as Simelane was an out lesbian woman.
On 28 April 2008, Banyana Banyana midfielder, Eudy Simelane, was found in a ditch on the outskirts of her home township, KwaThema, Gauteng. She had been raped, robbed and murdered.
Simelane had had a successful soccer career and used her celebrity status as part of her LGBTI activism campaign. She was out in her community, and while reactions to her homosexuality were mixed, KwaThema did have a known and celebrated LGBTI-friendly sub-culture. This made Simelane’s abduction, rape and murder all the more alarming.
The violence against her was particularly brutal as she had been gang-raped and then stabbed over 25 times. ‘Corrective’ rape is a common threat to black lesbian women in South African townships, the idea being that raping a lesbian woman will ‘cure’ her of her homosexuality.
The term has caused controversy, with many LGBTI organisations preferring terms such as homophobic or transphobic sexual violence. Two of the four attackers were apprehended and convicted.
The trial of four suspected attackers began on 11 February, 2009 in Delmas, Mpumalanga. One of the four alleged attackers pleaded guilty to rape and murder and was sentenced to 32 years’ imprisonment. In September 2009, another was convicted of murder, rape and robbery, and sentenced to life plus 35 years, but the remaining two accused were acquitted.
Thato Mphithi and Themba Mvubu were the first men in South Africa to be convicted of ‘corrective’ rape, despite there being over 30 reported cases in the decade before Simelane’s murder. Upon leaving the court, Mvubu – who was sentenced to life imprisonment – stated that he “was not sorry” for his crimes.
Information courtesy of: https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/banyana-banyana-player-eudy-simelane-found-raped-and-murdered and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudy_Simelane.
