Buziwe Nocuze
A lesbian couple from Khayelitsha, Cape Town fear for their lives after they were attacked in a tavern.
The fight started after the suspect told them he hates lesbians because they think they are men.
The man allegedly beat up Monalisa Feke and her girlfriend Ellen Mponzo saying he wanted to prove to them they can’t fight him because they are not men.
Monalisa told Scrolla.Africa that she went to look for Ellen at a local tavern on Saturday around 4.30am when she came across their attacker.
She said it was not the first time she had met the man.
“Earlier during the day he confronted me and told me I must stop talking about him. I was shocked because I had never talked about him,” Monalisa said.
“But then he started beating me up. I understand that he just wanted an excuse to attack me.”
While beating her Monalisa said the man repeatedly said he wanted to prove that she wasn’t a man.
She begged the man to stop beating her. While she was down, another man arrived.
“I hoped he was coming to save me, but he was coming to help my attacker,” she said.
She said she managed to escape and realised that she dropped her house keys at the tavern and was forced to go back.
“When I got to the tavern I found Ellen bleeding and in pain. She had also been attacked by the same guy telling her that he hated lesbians,” said Monalisa.
The couple say they are living in fear, not knowing what will happen to them next. They said the guy lives in the same area.
They have been indoors since Sunday and cannot go out because they are not sure if they will make it home alive.
Funeka Soldaat, a lesbian community activist and also an advocate at Free Gender said incidents like this will continue to happen unless communities take lesbian episodes the way they do when a woman was abused.
Western Cape police spokesperson Captain Frederick Van Wyk, said an assault case was opened at Harare SAPS for investigation.
“A 32-year-old man was arrested and he appeared before the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court on Monday. His case was postponed to 1 July for further investigations,” Van Wyk said.
