Luleki Sizwe project is a charity that assists victims of ‘corrective rape’ a
new form of crime that has spread terror in South Africa. Campaigners came out
to call for direct retaliatory action, post the rape of a 13-year-old victim.
Government officials said the young victim’s case is being investigated by the police and she is receiving support.
The victim was raped in Pretoria for being open about her sexuality. Lesbians are being targeted and campaigners have revealed that more than 10 lesbians are reported to be raped or gang raped every week in Cape Town alone.
The so-called ‘corrective rape’ is on the increase in South Africa and some have even been raped at gunpoint.
These lesbian women are supposedly raped to “cure” them of their sexual orientation.
Eudy Simelane’s tragic death was an eye opener for everyone. A South African footballer who played for the South African women’s national football team, Eudy was an LGBT rights activist.
Her partially-clothed body was recovered in a creek in KwaThema, her hometown. She was brutally gang raped, beaten, and stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs. She became a victim of the practice of ‘corrective rape’, which is widespread in South Africa.
There have been many more victims of corrective rape. 20-year-old Nokuthula Radebe’s body was found in Soweto in March this year, and Sizakele Sigasa and Salome Masooa were raped and murdered in 2007.
A country which has legalised gay marriage is now haunted by an epidemic of brutal homophobic attacks. 170,000 people signed an online petition demanding action against corrective rape - a record for a campaign on a social change website.