CORINNE CHIN
A YEAR after 24-year-old mother-of-two Noxolo Nogwaza was murdered in KwaThema, Ekurhuleni, the police still have not made progress on her case.
On Easter morning 2011, Nogwaza was found dead due to stoning and stabbing in an alley behind a grocery store.
Friends believed she had been targeted because of her sexual orientation, making her a victim of so-called corrective rape.
However, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersexed (LGBTI) groups reject this, saying homosexuality was not “incorrect” to begin with.
“As far as I know, nothing has been happening with the case,” said Bontle Khalo, spokeswoman of the Ekurhuleni Pride Organising Committee (Epoc). “A lot of people are wondering and asking us questions, but we don’t know.”
Residents gathered on Tuesday evening at the KwaThema Central Methodist Church to honour Nogwaza and other victims of LGBTI hate crime. They sang and swayed, sporting matching purple shirts that read “Struggle continues” and “In memory of Noxolo Nogwaza, Eudy Simelane, Girly Nkosi, Xolani Dlomo”.
The four names represent victims of rape and murder in KwaThema.
Simelane, a Banyana Banyana player, was murdered in 2008; Nkosi was killed in 2009; and Dlomo, who is rarely mentioned in connection with “corrective rape”, was a gay man murdered in 2004.
Nogwaza’s murder sparked international online petitions against “corrective rape” and drew worldwide attention.
During the ceremony on Tuesday, victims’ families, survivors and church pastors spoke out against
the crime.
“Memory brings back the people we have lost. Memory must give us hope that the future will not be like the present,” pastor Smadz Matsepe said.
Event MC Musa Williams said: “It is encouraging that this church acknowledges the existence of the LGBTI community.”
Simelane’s mother Molly discussed the importance of parents accepting homosexuality in their children.
Nogwaza’s grandmother Vuyelwa spoke, while the families of Nkosi and Dlomo were also present.
Epoc had planned to picket at the police station in support of Nogwaza’s case, but had not received permission for the demonstration. The organisation then invited police to the event, but none attended.
“After this commemoration, we have to do something. Up to today, nothing has been done, which is so unacceptable,” Epoc chairwoman Ntsupe Mohapi said.