Soccer star's killer jailed

A South African court on Tuesday sentenced a man to life imprisonment
for the murder of lesbian footballer Eudy Simelane who was gang raped
and robbed in an attack last year.

The Delmas court, east of Johannesburg, sentenced the man to life for
the 31-year-old's murder, 20 years for being an accomplice to rape and
15 years for robbery, said Phumi Mtetwa of the Equality Project.

Two other men were acquitted of the attack on the well known lesbian
activist and former national women's football team player, whose body
was found in an open field in KwaThema township last April.

Themba Mvubu's conviction follows a 32 year sentence handed down in
February to a fourth accused who pled guilty to murder, robbery and
being an accomplice to rape but later retracted statements implicating
the other three.

Simelane's sexuality was ruled out in the first sentencing as a motive
in her killing but activists have linked the case to "corrective rape"
in which lesbians are targets of sexual violence.

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In March, a new study by anti-poverty group Action Aid warned that South
African lesbians were suffering rapes by men trying to "cure" their
homosexuality.

South Africa is one of the world's most violent societies with fresh
crime statistics released Tuesday showing a rise of sexual offences by
10,4 percent with 27 750 rapes committed in six months. - Sapa-AFP