Lesbian woman gang-raped and set alight in suspected hate crime
mambaonline.comThere’s outrage after 34-year-old lesbian-identifying Tankiso Tawanyane was raped and murdered in Kimberley in a monstrous suspected hate crime. According to the SA Police Service, it’s believed that Tawanyane was gang raped by three men, set alight with paraffin and left for dead in Lethabo Park, Roodepan, on Saturday.
She was found in front of a shack and taken to hospital where she later succumbed to her injuries. Tawanyane worked as a security guard at the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital.
On Tuesday, DA member of the provincial legislature, Ofentse Mokae, met with Tawanyane’s grieving sisters at her family home and called for justice for the murdered woman. “Acknowledging her brutal death was extremely hard and I can only imagine how difficult it must be for her family to come to terms with what has happened,” said Mokae.
He vowed to ensure that provincial government departments, including Safety, Social Development and the Premier’s Office, meet their commitments to assist the family. “I have also taken seriously the family’s concerns that Tankiso may have been vulnerable to attack, due to her being a member of the LGBTQI community,” said Mokae “I am appealing to Police Commissioner, Maj Gen Koliswa Otola, to consider the possibility that this may have been a hate crime, as the investigation continues, and to up the ante in terms of arresting the perpetrators.” In a statement, the ANC Women’s League LGBTIQ+ Desk also expressed its “extreme sadness and outrage” over the news of Tawanyane’s murder and offered its condolences to the woman’s traumatised family. “This horrific incident is a sad reminder of the urgency to address hate-motivated crimes through legislation,” said Patsy P Alley, the National Convenor of
