No Support| We need Food
by Melanie Nathan, April 07, 2010
We have been reporting about the South African lesbian allegedly beaten and raped for five hours by a man who told her he wanted to “turn her into a woman”.
Millicent Gaika of Gugulethu Township alleged her attacker “acted like an animal who wanted to kill” and said “I thought he was going to kill me; he was like an animal. And he kept saying: ‘I know you are a lesbian. You are not a man, you think you are, but I am going to show you, you are a woman. I am going to make you pregnant. I am going to kill you.’”
I was contacted by the Group in South Africa which is helping Milicent.:
“We need help. There must be no bail* for the man accused of beating and repeatedly raping Millicent Gaika for five hours because she is a lesbian.” This was the demand made by Luleki Sizwe- LBT Womyn’s Project when they turned up in full force at the Magistrates Court yesterday. We need help, there is no food or toiletries for Millicent – her family is not supportive!”
More than 80 people from Gugulethu, Khayalitsha and Nyanga arrived in protest at the Wynberg court on Tuesday, 6 April in anger and solidarity. However, the hearing was postponed to Tuesday 13th March and the man has been kept in custody.
Millicent explained that she and her friends were walking home after visiting another friend. The man, whom she said she had known for a number of years and who had never objected to her sexuality before, asked her for a cigarette. She stayed to smoke with him, and followed him into his room when he refused to pass the cigarette to her. According to her he then locked the door and started hitting her while she tried to fight back.
“He pulled off my clothes and pushed me down on the bed. He was holding me down, strangling me with the wire and pushing his hands hard onto my neck. She added that he threatened to kill her and thow her body in the river I thought I was gonna die[Millicent]. He kept saying to her, “I know you are a lesbian. You are not a man. You think you are, but I am going to show you are a woman. “I’m gonna make you pregnant you are going to carry a babe for me .I really hate myself right now Andile has killed me big time.I really hate man honestly why me why me.
“This needs to be stopped. We know so many to whom this has happened and nothing is being done about it,” said Luleki Sizwe founder and director Ndumie Funda. The project was founded more than two years ago after her fiancé and other lesbians she knew died of Aids-related illnesses as a result of homophobic attacks.
The angry Gugulethu community doesn’t want Andile **to get bail. “Ngabantwana bethu nithi mabathini” / (“they are our kids and is their lives and we as the community we must support them.”)
I have been in contact with the person taking care of Millicent and want to share the latest e-mail. We are starting a fund for Millicent and her caregiver organization:-
This e-mail “What a life we are living.. she’s not good in speaking English,. She’s still traumatize and she currently staying with me and her family is not supportive. No financial support . Our organization does not have any funding . i don’t have money to buy food,toiletry, petrol no support there’s only one organisation that is helping at is Gender Dynamix. Sister Melanie, i really need some help i’m getting drained by this this- dont know what to do here. oh magosh i’m sick and tired of this kind of life and Zuma is quiet.”
Please readers can you help in this desperate plea. Any donations can be sent to Melanie Nathan P.O. BOX 1108, Woodacre, CA 94973. Checks should be made to: PRIVATE COURTS, Inc. and in the memo – Fund for Millicent Gaika.
South Africans wanting to help, please e-mail [email protected] for information where to send funds.
We will ensure that funds are distributed in a manner that maintains the safety of the Parties.
* Unlike US law, the standard fro granting bail in South Africa is different. Here in the US if a Judge grants bail and they do not want you out, they will make it a very high bail. In South Africa if the Judge grants bail, it must be relative to what the accused can in fact afford or the Judge must not grant bail at all.
* In South Africa an accused cannot be named in the Press until he pleads – it seems as if we may be the first to publish his (leaked) name.
UPDATE : I Just spoke to Millicent’s caregiver in South Africa, with Millicent present -; “We need prayers that she is not HIV positive and we wait for tests, She had scan for internal injuries and we wait. It was a miracle they broke down the door while he was strangling her with a wire- he wanted to kill her.”
She survived and although she is very scared and needs to find a safe house, she wants her face to speak so it will not happen again. “I will want to die if I am HIV I will struggle to live.” This is the third time she has been raped for being a lesbian. Twice it was not strangers.
She needs money for food and transportation to the Court. They cannot afford further medical treatment.
Millicent is a soccer player. But now she cannot play.
By Melanie Nathan. [email protected]
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Some Quotes from Friends & Sources In South Africa:
” Like everything else in South Africa gets raped to its last breath.
There is no policing to handle these type of situations and best of all is most people do not even understand it and feel that what was done to the victims was correct. As for Helen Zille, I think she is fighting a losing battle, a black person in South Africa will never vote for a white person purely because of the history in SA. Even if the current government is a bunch of baboons, stealing, raping and killing as they go. Just look at what has happened in Zimbabwe and the people still vote for Robert Mugabe. It is ridiculous but some people believe a civil/race war is on its way.NG from Pretoria South Africa”