South Africa Lesbian Killers| Zoliswa Gets Justice at Last

It took two weeks for the news to filter to media, that nineteen year old Zoliswa Nkonyana had been stoned, beaten and kicked to death by a large group of men, in Khayelitsha Township, outside of Cape Town, South Africa. It took another five years to bring four of the nine accused men to justice.  There may have been as many as twelve or more involved. Yet the question remains has there been proper justice for Zoliswa and what about all the other victims of horrendous anti-gay brutality?

Amidst the outcry for justice by gay activists, the Zoliswa trial became a curious circus of escapes, recaptures, postponements and acquittals, until Friday when finally four of the men were found guilty of murdering the young woman, by Magistrate Raadiyah Wathen in the Khayelitsha Regional Court.

Zoliswa was an out lesbian in a country that ironically, while leading the world in LGBTI equality, has one of the highest records of violence against gays and lesbians.

In March of this year I returned to the land of my birth, where I had once been a lawyer, as keynote speaker for Cape Town Pride and to accompany Ndumie Funda of Luleki Sizwe,  to present reforms to the to the Minister of Justice with regard to so called “corrective rape” against lesbians.

While there I accompanied photographer Zanele Muholi and a group of fifteen lesbian activists from organization called Freegender to attend the trial of the nine remaining men accused of murdering Zoliswa in Khayelitsha . I wanted to see what it felt like to be a lesbian in the township attending such a trial and let go of the ‘bells and whistles’ that could have graced my attendance as a member of foreign press.  I could not have imagined just how dangerous it would be and was astounded by the courage of my hosts, themselves victims of horrendous brutality, who had shown up for each and every one of the 31 plus postponed hearings, over the previous five years.

We were glared at by onlookers; vicious insults were hurled at us as we walked the dusty street of the township from the bus to the courthouse and back.  A crowd of LGBTI activists, bravely adorning anti-rape T-Shirts, had grown outside the courtroom. They danced in a large circle and in warlike fashion, peacefully pointed in unison at the Court, chanting their impromptu admonishment at the system, for its tardy attempt at justice.

The mother of Zoliswa sat alone in the court, outnumbered by hoards of family and supporters of the accused. It concerned me that she seemed to have no one to comfort her through this thirtieth time in the court. Although stoic, she was clearly afraid to embrace the lesbian friends of her beloved murdered child. I was told they longed to envelop her, but were repelled by the surrounding stares and feared for the mother’s own safety. This mother was in so much pain, only exacerbated by society’s cruel judgment of her daughter’s sexuality.

I came to understand the complexity of the situation – of trying all those accused, some whom shared counsel, and others who had changed counsel many times.  I spoke to the lead prosecutor who shared the frustration of witnesses lost to fear with the system’s failure to provide adequate witness protection.

I noted the eagerness on the face of the twenty uniformed police who lined the walls of the courtroom, armed with AK-47’s, at the ready after an embarrassing escape during a previous hearing.

The dock was in front of the press bench, where I sat. There were no bars to protect the spectators and the dock loomed dangerously close to our wooden benches.  It sent a chill down my spine when I realized that there was very little space and no security between me and the accused. My instinct was compounded when the nine men entered and stood tightly next to each other, chained at the feet, with free hands. The dock was small and they huddled together. One had a cell phone in his hands. It bewildered me; what if one tried to grab me or someone else; would all AK-47’s fire at once – while we sat in the middle?

I looked at the accused, all between 19 to 24 years of age, who smiled at relatives and friends; these were the men who may well have committed the most unimaginable inhumane torture and murder of our sister lesbian. My fear turned to a surge of incomprehensible anger, unlike anything I had experienced before, and became overwhelmingly entrenched in the justice sought for Zoliswa.

We waited in the court, like that, for two hours, noticing some antics between the defense attorneys and prosecutors, before the mother was ushered out of the court by the Prosecutor. The defense attorneys had come up with yet another reason to continue the case.  However this time the Magistrate rebuked the defense counsel in the harshest of terms and announced that she would sanction heavily if this were not to be the final continuance; and so it was.  Now six months later, there is finally a concluded trial and a verdict.

Magistrate Whaten said the testimony of two witnesses led to the conclusion that Lubabalo Ntlabathi, Sicelo Mase, Luyanda Londzi and Mbulelo Damba took part in the stoning and stabbing of Nkonyana in 2006; but that “the presence of the other three accused, Mfundo Kulani, Themba Dlephu and Sabelo Yekiso, at the murder was not enough to find them guilty of murder.”    (Noting two had been previously set free.)

The difficulty remains whether or not all including those who stood by and watched the horrendous murder should have also been found guilty, maybe of a lesser crime? Will they be re-charged under some other statute?

Notably, pursuant to our March meeting with the office of the Minister of Justice in South Africa, an historic hate crimes task force, including a partnership of government and advocacy organizations, has now been formed. This will seek to establish the reforms which we presented to the Minister in March and hopefully the justice system will be equipped to deal appropriately with lesbians who have been the victims of “corrective rape” as well as other victims of anti-gay violence.

The case of Zoliswa is but one of many such cases to highlight the need for reform to the South African Justice System and to reconcile the brilliance of the South African Bill of Rights with the treatment of its LGBT community. Full Article http://gayusathemovie.com/2011/10/justice-delayed-for-zoliswa-nkonyana-is-justice-denied-for-all-lesbians/

Top Picture: Taken by Zanele Muholi for Melanie Nathan
Bus Ride to Court for Zoliswa trial in Khayelitsha
Bottom Pictures: Outside Court by Melanie Nathan.

Melanie Nathan

@melanienathan1