DURBAN - The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQA+) community has called for a special summit to discuss soaring levels of violence against them.
Speaking to the Daily News after the funeral of Pinky Shongwe who was a lesbian, the provincial director of LGBTQA+ Hlengiwe Buthelezi said she would speak to the relevant government department to assist in organising the summit to discuss ways and means to stop what she termed the slaughter of members of her group.
Buthelezi said the government needed to do something about the soaring levels of violent crime against their members, saying the summit urgently needed to be convened to fight the scourge.
“We are going to engage stakeholders, including the relevant departments with the aim of organising the summit. We need a platform under one roof to discuss the spiralling crime against us.
“We are being killed for what we are and we are not going to change who we are so we need to be protected by society and our law enforcement agencies,” said Buthelezi.
Shongwe was stabbed to death by a man after rejecting his romantic advances last week in Umlazi.
She was buried in her rural home of Gcilima in Port Shepstone.
According to police and the family, she had gone to the shop near her home at H section in Umlazi when she was confronted by an unknown man who stopped her and proposed love.
When she rejected him, the man allegedly pulled a knife and fatally stabbed her. She was found with multiple wounds to the body and was declared dead on arrival at hospital.
Speaking at the funeral, the Ray Nkonyeni Local Municipality Mayor Sikhumbuzo Mqadi urged people to allow the LGBTQA+ community to enjoy their constitutional rights which are to live their own lifestyle freely without being discriminated against.
Mqadi said South Africa was one of the countries which did not hesitate to amend the marriage act to allow same-sex marriage, adding that society should have long accepted and lived side by side with members of the LGBTQA+ community.
The mayor, who came from Gcilima, called on police to speedily find the perpetrator. The incident was also condemned by Social Development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza who said she was disturbed and angered by the incident. Despite her department’s awareness campaign to teach people to accept and respect the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians, there were still people who discriminate them, she said.
According to the group, Shongwe was the 23rd person to be killed for being a lesbian in Durban alone in a space of two years following the widely publicised murder of group activist Lindo Cele who was stabbed 21 times in 2020.
Daily News