Rustenburg - The South African Police Service (SAPS) has offered a R50 000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved in the murder and rape of lesbian woman, Tankiso Tawanyane, in Roodepan, Kimberley in the Northern Cape.
The 34-year-old was raped and murdered in Lethabo Park, Roodepan on October 7.
Northern Cape police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Kock, said Tawanyane was allegedly raped by three unknown men and later set her alight with paraffin.
“The victim succumbed to her injuries in hospital on the 08 October 2022.
"Anyone with information can contact D/WO Lesego Oliphant at 082 495 4605 or D/Capt Sebata Tsiu at 082 874 4613. You can also sms anonymously to 32211 or utilize the MySAPS app. All information will be treated with the strictest of confidence. The investigation continues,“ he said.
The SABC reported that her family and friends were seeking justice and wanted the perpetrators arrested.
Her loved ones told the public broadcaster that they wanted the police to speed up investigations.
The Diamond Fields Advertiser newspaper published in Kimberley, reported that Tawanyane's girlfriend was living in fear following her partner’s brutal murder.
"We were living in Roodepan and were involved in a relationship for about a year. Judging from the way she was killed and burnt, it could be viewed as a ‘corrective rape’. I left the place where we were staying and have since returned to my parental home because I might be the next target and the perpetrators have not been arrested yet," she was quoted as saying.
According to Mambaonline, a queer news platform, Tawanyane was the ninth known queer individual to be killed in South Africa this year.
In August, transgender woman Athule Mahlathini, 24, was beaten unconscious and set alight with paraffin, allegedly by a family member of Mahlathini’s boyfriend.
Earlier in June, 24-year-old Emanuel Mouers was stabbed to death in a suspected hate crime by a man who objected to him using the men’s bathroom.
A month before, in May, the body of Ruth Chigowe, a 24-year-old lesbian mom from Zimbabwe, was found “stoned to death” in Katlehong, south east of Johannesburg.
Also in May , 31-year-old Refiloe Malope was kidnapped by two men who shoved her into the boot of a vehicle in Kgaphamadi village, Limpopo. In June, her body was found and retrieved from the bottom of a mine shaft in Benoni. The two suspects have been arrested.
The mutilated body of Nontokozo Caroline Motloung, 27, who’d been missing for a week in Vereeniging, was found on May 21, after a desperate search by her family and community. Also in May, the naked body of 22-year old Unathi Webber was discovered in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.
On April 27, Musa Xulu, 25, was gunned down in full view of the public in Inanda, Durban. It’s believed Xulu was buying items at a garage when a man said he hated gays and shot him dead in the parking lot.
Just days earlier, 24-year-old Mfundo Ngobese was seriously injured in a suspected hate crime attack by a group of men near the Durban City Hall after leaving a gay nightclub.
In March, Pinky Shongwe, a 32-year-old lesbian woman, was stabbed to death just outside of Durban, reportedly because she had rejected a man’s romantic advances.
IOL