By Sokari Ekine | 12 June 2008, 15:47

On Monday 28th April Eudy Simelane (31), a former Banyana-Banyana soccer player, and an out lesbian was found murdered having been stabbed and mutilated in an open field. Six weeks later another homophobic murder took place in South Africa.

It seems it is so easy to move from name calling to drawing a gun and shooting someone simply because they are different, different sexualities, different nationalities, different races. The murder of Daisy Dube is under investigation but like so many previous murders, rapes and acts of violence, the perpetrators remain free sometimes even to taunt their victims on the street, in the corner shop, in the HIV clinics. This is how Daisy Dube died on the evening of the 2nd June 2008 in Yeoville, Johannesburg.

On the evening of 2 June 2008, five close friends, four proudly self identifying as Drag Queens, went for an outing in Yeoville. Confronted by homophobic hate speech, they challenged three men to stop calling them “izitabane”.

Shortly after 9pm, one of the three men, sitting in a white Corolla, handed a gun to the other friend to “shoot lezitabane”. Twenty five year old Desmond Dube, fondly known as Daisy, died on the scene.

Close friend, Odwa Mbane, who was at the scene described the fear and chaos caused by the assassins. She affirms that the motivation was because of their gender identity and that they were not going to subject themselves to ridicule.

MaNonstikeleo Dube describes her daughter’s pride for who she was, her love for her, sense of responsibility and her great loss of a daughter who had carried her needs and dreams to the day she was brutally murdered.

Daisy Dube was buried at the Thembisa cemetery, following a moving service in Yeoville, attended by many members of the LGBTI community from around Johannesburg.

Links: African LGBT Posts on Black Looks