LESBIAN SHOT DEAD IN SOWETO

A 28-year-old lesbian woman has been shot dead in Soweto, a killing that activists fear may have been motivated by her sexual orientation.

According to Dikeledi Sibanda from the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), Sanna Supa was opening the driveway gate of her Braamficherville, Soweto home to park her car on Saturday night when she was shot three times.

Supa, a clerk at a school, reportedly died on the way to the hospital. The identity and motive of her killer or killers is unknown.

Sibanda told Mambaonline that robbery or hijacking did not appear to be a motive as the car and two cell phones that were lying on the dashboard were not taken.

“Are we the only people in this country noticing these killings since nothing has not come from the powers that be or are the people being killed not human enough or not citizens enough?” asked FEW in a statement.

It added: “Should we be scared and close ourselves in our individual closets for safety or should we stand up and fight to put an end to these senseless killings?”

Mambaonline is aware of at least three other confirmed murders of LGBTI people in the last month, thought to be hate crimes related to their sexual orientation: Thapelo Makhutle, the 24-year-old gay/trans individual who was mutilated and murdered in the Northern Cape; Neil Daniels, who was stabbed and set alight in Cape Town; and 22-year-old Phumeza Nkolonzi from Nyanga, Cape Town, who was shot three times by a man who burst into her home.

FEW says that it has reports of two other killings of gay and lesbian people, one in Limpopo and another in the Vaal area. Mambaonline has not yet confirmed these attacks.

An exclusive Mambaonline report on the status of the Gender and Sexual Orientation based Violence Task Team this week concluded that little has been achieved by the team in the year since its formation was announced by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.

FEW announced that a memorial service will be held at the House of Victory Church (not very far from the Spar store) in Braamficherville on Thursday at 4 p.m. to mark Supa’s murder and the recent killings of other LGBTI people.