Eudy Simelane (11 March 1977 – 28 April 2008) was a South African

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played for the South Africa national team and an

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

rights activist. She was raped and murdered in her hometown of

KwaThema KwaThema is a township south-west of Springs in the district of Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1951 when Africans were forcibly removed from Payneville because it was considered by the apartheid government to be too clos ...

, Springs,

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

Early life

Simelane was born in

, South Africa.

Football

Simelane played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Springs Home Sweepers F.C. and the South Africa national team. She also coached four teams and was studying to be a referee.

Death

Simelane's partially clothed body was found in a creek in KwaThema. She had been abducted,

gang rape Gang rape, also called serial gang rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape in scholarly literature,Ullman, S. E. (2013). 11 Multiple perpetrator rape victimization. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape: A Multidisciplinary Re ...

d, beaten, and stabbed 25 times in the face, chest, and legs. She had been one of the first women to live openly as a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

in KwaThema. A report by the international

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

ActionAid, backed by the

South African Human Rights Commission The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) was inaugurated in October 1995 as an independent chapter nine institution. It draws its mandate from the South African Constitution by way of the Human Rights Commission Act of 1994. Commissioner ...

, suggested that her murder was a

hate crime A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...

committed against her because of her

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

. According to local

gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 3 ...

organization The Triangle Project, the practice of "

corrective rape Corrective rape, also called curative rape, as well as homophobic rape, is a hate crime in which one or more people are raped because of their perceived sexual orientation such as homosexuality or bisexuality. The common intended consequence ...

" is widespread in South Africa, whereby men rape lesbians purportedly to "cure" them of their sexual orientation. The trial of four suspected attackers began on 11 February 2009 in Delmas,

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

. One of the four alleged attackers pleaded guilty to rape and murder and was sentenced to 32 years' imprisonment. In September 2009, another was convicted of murder, rape, and robbery, and sentenced to life plus 35 years, but the remaining two accused were acquitted.

Honours

A miniature bridge was erected in KwaThema, Springs,

, in her honor in 2009.

References

External links

* 1977 births 2008 deaths Corrective rape 2008 murders in South Africa South African LGBT sportspeople South African LGBT rights activists People from Springs, Gauteng People murdered in South Africa Rape in South Africa South Africa women's international soccer players South African women's soccer players South African murder victims South African victims of anti-LGBT hate crimes Lesbian sportswomen LGBT association football players Lesbophobic violence Women's association football midfielders Sportspeople from Gauteng 20th-century LGBT people {{SouthAfrica-women-footy-bio-stub