Arrest And Confession In Gay South African Man's Beheading

Andy earlier this month shared the distressing news that Thapelo Makutle, a 24-year old South African, was beheaded by then-unknown assailants for being gay and trans-identifying.

Via Mamba Online comes news that a 22-year old named Sizwe Jajini was arrested for the murder and subsequently confessed.

Colonel Bosman of the Mothibistad Police told Mambaonline that 22-year-old Sizwe Jajini was arrested on Sunday for the murder.

He appeared in the Mothibistad Magistrate's Court on Tuesday morning where he confessed to the murder. He is expected to appear in court again on 3 July.

Bosman said that she had no information as to a possible motive. Initial reports suggested that two men were involved in the attack but she said that as the investigation is still ongoing "we can't say if there are more suspects or not".

Shaine Griqua, director of the LGBT group LEGBO Cape, said the Makutle's brutal death should "highlight the need for more resources and structures to support LGBTI people in under-developed areas such as the Northern Cape."

South African Man Beheaded for Being Gay

Thapelo Makutle, a 23-year-old trans and gay-identifying man and pageant queen who was recently crowned Miss Gay Kuruman (a city in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, where he lived) and volunteered at the local LGBT rights organization (LEGBO), was murdered and beheaded by two men over his sexuality on Friday.

South Africa's Mamba Online reports:

According to the group Legbo Northern Cape, Thapelo Makutle was attacked at his place of work in the John Taolo Gaetsewe district on Friday. The organisation said that there was an argument related to "his sexuality and homosexuality".

His two attackers are believed to have followed him to the room where he lived and on Saturday cut his throat, decapitating him. They left his body under a blanket as though he were sleeping.

No arrests have been made in connection with the murder.

Said Shaine Griqua, director of Legbo Northern Cape, to Mambaonline: "It's so sad. I can't describe the pain that we are feeling right now. We have lost a young, talented, gay man who was open about who he was. The last few days have been like a dark cloud."

Insane Clip of Base Jumper 'Birdman' Jeb Corliss' Crash into Cape Town's Table Mountain: VIDEO

Last month I posted a far-away clip shot of daredevil base jumper Jeb Corliss' ill-fated jump from Cape Town, South Africa's Table Mountain during which he clipped the cliff with his legs.

Corliss, being who he is, of course had the stunt captured from all angles, and it's vertigo-inducing.

Check it out, AFTER THE JUMP...

King Goodwill Mum On Anti-Gay Remarks

Last weekend, moderate Africans were scandalized when King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhezkazulu, hereditary leader of the Zulus, said about gay relationships:

There was nothing like that [in traditional Zulu culture] and if you do it, you must know that you are rotten. I don't care how you feel about it. If you do it, you must know that it is wrong and you are rotten. Same sex is not acceptable.

The South African Human Rights Commission quickly condemned King Goodwill's remarks, as did South African president Jacob Zuma. (King Goodwill's position is primarily ceremonial, and he lives and conducts his duties of office within South Africa.) In the following days, representatives of the Zulu royal family insisted that journalists had misheard King Goodwill's remarks. Hoping for clarification, journalists today hustled to the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal to hear the King deliver his first address since the incident, spurred by a release from the South African Office of Traditional Affairs promising that the King would clarify his thoughts on homosexuality.

But the King made no reference to the controversy during his two-hour speech, which he used to stump for the preservation of Zulu history and culture. Which must lead one to consider: Maybe his remarks weren't misinterpreted after all. If not, the King's dislike for LGBT's probably has more to do with personal distaste than with concern for the traditional Christian family structure. Although the Zulus are overwhelmingly Protestant, King Goodwill has six wives.

Base Jumper 'Birdman' Jeb Corliss Survives Crash into Cape Town's Table Mountain: VIDEO

Wingsuit flyer and base jumper Jeb "the birdman" Corliss survived a harrowing plunge off Cape Town, South Africa's Table Mountain on Monday. Corliss clipped the cliff with his legs, according to notes on a YouTube video of his failed jump, which was being filmed by HBO. It was Corliss' second leap from the mountain.

The Telegraph reports:

He was recovered from close to the base of the mountain by air ambulance and taken to a private hospital in the city where he was admitted to intensive care. A spokesman for the hospital said that he remained in good spirits, and instructed her to tell well-wishers: "I feel the best I ever have."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

(via the daily what)

AIDS Spreading In Senegalese Prisons

Senegal, with its Sufi Muslim majority, has one of the lowest incidences of AIDS in Africa, largely due to successful condom and needle distribution progrms. But the disease is rampant among gay men, with infection rates as high as 22%, according to AIDSAlliance -- and according to Catholic Online, the disease is spreading unchecked in the nation's prisons.

The reasons are religious, naturally. A Catholic Online reporter asked Assane Balde, the chief medical officer at Camp Penal, one of Sengal's largest prisons, whether free needles and condoms might be made available to inmates. (Yes, it's a weird question for a Catholic reporter to ask, but never mind.) From Catholic Online:

... Balde is steadfastly opposed. He says they do not have problems with hard drugs and a condom distribution program would simply not be tolerated.

"Our religion doesn't permit this," Balde says. "We are Muslims, and as Muslims we don't like seeing that. There is no tolerance for this type of behavior. It's a taboo subject, and we don't even talk about it."

In nearby Ivory Coast, a recent study of a prison found that 28% of inmates are HIV positive, while the infection rate in the general population is just 7%. In South Africa, where the general infection rate is 12%, rates of infection in prisons are 40 - 45%. There is no mandatory testing in Senegalese prisons, so although it's known that prisoners are becoming ill in increasing numbers, no statistics are available. But if even Senegalese medical officers refuse to discuss the issue, the numbers, whatever they are, can only get worse.