The Brutality of ‘Corrective Rape’
In one of the few cases to attract press attention, in 2008, Eudy Simelane, a lesbian, was gang-raped and stabbed to death. Her naked body was dumped in a stream in the Kwa Thema township outside Johannesburg. A soccer player training to be a referee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, she was targeted because of her sexual orientation.
In 2011, Noxolo Nogwaza, 24, was raped, and stabbed multiple times with glass shards. Her skull was shattered. Her eyes were reportedly gouged from their sockets. Ms. Nogwaza had been seen earlier that evening in a bar with a female friend.
Khayelitsha, left, outside of Cape Town, is among fastest-growing townships in South Africa. According to the South African Police, 249 sexual crimes were reported between April 2011 and March 2012. In Kwa Thema, right, outside Johannesburg, a mural was painted here after the body of a well-know soccer player, Eudy Simelane, was found in a park. She was gang-raped and stabbed nine times. Clare Carter/Contact Press Images
I read of these killings and began to research them. I was shocked by the contradiction between South Africa’s law — it was the fifth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage — and what was actually happening on the streets.