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Woman killed for being a lesbian - report

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(File, Punit Paranjpe, AFP)
(File, Punit Paranjpe, AFP)

Mahikeng - The brutal rape and murder of an 18-year-old woman in Ventersdorp, North West, last week appears to have been yet another incident of “corrective rape”.

The young woman, Gift Makau, was found dead in Tshing location on Friday. She had been raped and strangled with wire and a shoelace and a hosepipe had been shoved into her mouth, reported the Times.

A 24-year-old man has been arrested and will appear in the Venterdorp Magistrate’s Court on Monday, police said.

Makau’s cousin said her family, who knew she was a lesbian, was devastated.

The cousin said Makau had never been abused in the community for her sexuality and was well-known in the community for playing soccer.

Meanwhile, Jabu Pereira, director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex human rights organisation Iranti-org, told News24 there had been a confirmed case of a lesbian in Cape Town being pushed in front of a train by another woman.

It was, however, unclear why she had been pushed, Pereira said.
 
About 30 lesbians have been attacked and murdered because of their sexuality over the past 15 years, according to reports.

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