On the second anniversary of Zoliswa Nkonyana's murder, the Joint Working Group, an umbrella network of national GLBTI organizations, launched the 07-07-07 Campaign in Capetown and Johannesburg with Western Cape alliances. The Campaign takes its name from the date of the Soweto murders and operates at a national level. It aims to drawn attention to the increasing violence faced by black township homosexual women and to provide support to those engaged in legal action related to this hate-based violence.
SWEAT (Sex worker and Advocacy Taskforce) endorses recent calls by the Western Cape End Hate Alliance and other LGBTI activists and Human Rights defenders, for an end to heterosexist violence.
Over the past two months we have seen the murders of three sex workers. The voices that shout so loudly to express moral outrage at the thought of decriminalizing sex work, are strangely silent about these outrageous killings. There are no screaming newspaper headlines, no columns or even centimeters of print denouncing these deaths.
How do we comprehend this indifference? Clearly in our society, there is the assumption that some lives matter, and others do not. Hate crime is rooted in a very real but specific sort of identification and exclusion of those who are seen to be outside a very narrow area of the norm and normality. Is this the kind of society we want – a society united not by inclusion and belonging, but by a shared sense of hate and exclusion?
With the murder of a woman in Cape Town, we lost a friend. The response of these sex workers who lived with and knew her, was to set up a neighbourhood watch. The murder suspect was arrested as a direct result of this initiative. This courageous and important action by sex workers has also not received public attention.
There are many more sex workers who would gladly join other neighbourhood watch schemes. The sad irony is that while sex workers are offering our society an important and imaginative possibility in the fight against crime, they continue to be labeled as criminals themselves, and deserving of hate.
The Constitution of South Africa affords all citizens of this nation human rights and dignity, irrespective of their race, gender and sexual orientation. But this does not seem to be the case for black lesbians. They are targeted in their communities. The law is not protecting them, nor is it taking action against those who infringe on their human rights and dignity.
It is about time that the authorities take the issue of rape seriously so as to ensure the protection of all women. We want to see the perpetrators go to trial, and the victims and survivors have their day in court.
These are not issues that only affect one group, but the nation as a whole. SWEAT fully supports the Alliance and this cause, to demand justice for Zoliswa Nkonyana and others who are affected by hate crimes.
