Slowly international papers with a proud history of covering South Africa, like the Guardian, is catching up with the real events in the country.
With regards to xenophobic murders they were only about two years late (if you take a charitable view and ignore the fact that it had taken place for many years).
Yesterday they featured a video on ‘corrective rape’ of lesbians.
This time round they (and other major news outlets) are about 10 months late. Kameraad Mhambi coverered the original story of Eudy Simelane’s murder here after South African journalist John Qwelane’s homophobic outburst last year.
What triggered the article and video by the Guardian is a report by ActionAid backed by the South African Human Rights Commission. The report -
“condemns the culture of impunity around these crimes, which it says are going unrecognised by the state and unpunished by the legal system.”
This won’t be news to South Africans. But outside the country it will.
Does it matter that the world is aware? Yes – it does. International pressure helped end apartheid. South Africa still needs the scrutiny and attention of that era.
The problem here is far more intractable and hard to solve. And as I mentioned before has as much to do with a lack of governance as anything else:
But there are other big hurdles to cross. The biggest factor at play here is not the just unacknowledged intolerance and hate, but it is the inability of the state to provide protection. There are many homophobes the world over including Britain and the USA, but their gay communities are thriving.
One of the lessons the world will eventually learn from the South African experience is that the rule of law and effective policing can provide for a kind of democracy, even in an autocracy, that a broken and dysfunctional democracy can not. Just ask the women of Iraq.
Still international support will strengthen the hand of human rights campaigners and democrats. We hope the fair weather lefties of Farringdon road, Islington and Stoke Newington catch a wake up.
UPDATE Channel 4 also carried this piece yesterday.
Related deployments:
This is too chilling.
[...] UK Guardian on South African ‘corrective rape’ (mhambi.com) [...]