The South African football star murdered for being a lesbian
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 11 November 2021
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Eudy Simelane was a star of the South African women's national football team and a gay rights activist. In 2008, she was pursued by a group of men after leaving a pub close to her home in the township of Kwa-Thema. She was gang raped and stabbed to death. She was 31 years old. Her family, friends and campaigners say that her sexuality made her a target for this brutal hate crime. Viv Jones speaks to Mmapaseka 'Steve' Letsike, an LGBTI activist who was a friend of Eudy’s. They became friends when they played football together as teens. Steve describes how Eudy's murder became the focus of a campaign to draw attention to attacks on gay South Africans, and black lesbians in particular. It also started a national conversation about the horrific crime of so-called 'corrective rape', where lesbians are raped to ‘cure’ or punish them.
Photo: Eudy Simelane’s parents sat at the bridge named in their daughter’s honour. Credit: BBC
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less searching |
| 0:25.7 | and a lot more watching. I'm Viv Jones. Today I'm |
| 0:35.0 | 2008 when the brutal gang rape and murder of a star footballer shocked South Africa. |
| 0:44.5 | Yudie Similane was a 31 year old striker who had played for the national women's team. |
| 0:50.0 | She was also an out lesbian and a well-known gay rights activist. |
| 0:54.5 | Her killing forced South Africa to confront its high rate of hate crimes against lesbians. |
| 0:59.5 | I've been speaking to Steve Let's CK. |
| 1:02.3 | Steve is a prominent LGBTI activist. |
| 1:05.4 | She was also Yudi's friend. |
| 1:07.6 | Steve grew up in a black township not far from Yudis, |
| 1:10.6 | and they first met when they were teenage football fanatics. |
| 1:14.0 | I used to be a soccer player myself so we used to play against each other. |
| 1:20.0 | She used to be a striker and I used to be in defense. |
| 1:24.5 | What was it like to play against her? |
| 1:27.7 | You do was so passionate about soccer, so dedicated. |
| 1:31.7 | She would play with serious discipline. She did not want to take |
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