Zimbabweans in South African gay murder storm

A group of young Zimbabweans have been sucked into a raging and disturbing gay men murder saga in South Africa (SA), it has emerged.

While the identity of the trio under South African Police Service (SAPS) investigation remains under wraps, there are fears that the group forms part of a cosmopolitan syndicate targeting wealthy homosexual men in Johannesburg and other parts of the country.

In a recent investigative piece, City Press named at least four people - Jim Cathels, Carl Mishke, Oscar O'Hara and Rulov Senekal - whose bodies not only turned up dead after hooking up with young black males for illicit sex, but became victims of endless blackmail.

"Three Zimbabwean suspects fled home to avoid arrest in the murder of Cathels in Berea. It appears they (gay couples) hook up online, become casual sex acquaintances, offer a threesome or bring friends over (but) their victims are overpowered, bound with shoelaces or a cellphone charger cord," reported the paper at the weekend.

The report added that victims' mouths are often found stuffed with socks or paper and strangled.

"Afterwards, their homes are robbed of particular items. Laptops, cellphones, cameras - all of which could have provided clues about online hook-ups or sex," he Johannesburg-based paper said.

But even in a country which became the first on the continent to recognise same sex marriages, homosexuals are still subject to extortion or even death.

"Three men were seen at the home of (name withheld) who was murdered in Kensington. Two men are captured on camera leaving his apartment in Braamfontein," added the paper.

It has, however, emerged that a huge number of people in the SADC region frowns upon homosexuality, although many of its distressed and unemployed youngsters are engaging in the unholy practice for economic reasons.

Meanwhile, President Robert Mugabe has always maintained his stance against homosexuality, alleging that they are worse than dogs - a principle that has awarded him more support from 'true African culture' loyalists and Zimbabweans at large.

"When I say gays are worse than dogs and pigs, I really mean it because pigs don't do unnatural things. Let not our Parliament ever entertain that the unnatural must be made natural. I cannot appreciate that a whole Parliament can decide that Robert Mugabe and Joseph Msika (late) can get married. I don't think the mission of human beings is to do unnatural things," declared the principled President Mugabe.

However, several high-profile Zimbabweans, including the late Canaan Banana - the country's first black president and Methodist Church in Zimbabwe's former minister - and ex-Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation chief executive Alum Mpofu, have fallen from grace after sordid gay allegations.