The Commission for Gender Commission (CGE) strongly condemns the unfortunate killings of Gays and Lesbians in Johannesburg and elsewhere in the country. As enshrined in our Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgendered and intersexed people (LGBTI) have the same rights just like everyone else.
The continual hatred and killings of LGBTI people is violation of founding provision of the South African Constitution which are equality and human dignity. Such horrendous deeds are not only meant to rob society and the families of good people who do not deserves to go through these gruesome acts but shows that some in our society are very intolerant and unable to appreciate the diverse society that we live in.
The continued use of culture in order to disguise for criminal intent against LGBTI people has to be strongly condemned. The Commission is also concerned about the long delays in cases relating to this issue. CGE views these acts as criminal acts and the perpetrators deserve to face the full might of the law, henceforth serve long sentence in jail if proven to have committed these atrocities.
“We want to applaud the police for having acted swiftly in arresting the suspect in the Killing of UJ Gay Professor, Carl Mischke. We trust this arrest can lead to more arrests, as we cannot allow these hate crime killings go on unabated. We call upon the criminal justice cluster to develop a strategy that will deal with this,” said the Commission for Gender Equality Chairperson, Mr Mfanozelwe Shozi.
The CGE calls for all interested parties to rally around LGBTI people and help society to understand that LGBTI people are human beings who deserves respect and protection regardless of their sexual orientation. We call upon both provincial and local government to develop plans to deal with homophia. We will continue to monitor cases that involve LGBTI throughout the country.
The CGE will support to the passing of hate crime legislation.
