[News] [Zimbabwe] Samukeliso’s case special: medical experts
Stephanie Stevens
Samukeliso’s case special: medical experts
Saturday, 26 June 2010 18:56
MEDICAL experts have described former Lancashire Steel athlete
Samukeliso Sithole as “a special case”.
Samukeliso whose real name is Mdudusi Ngwenya, masqueraded as a
female athlete for some years before being unmasked and arrested in
2005.
He was sentenced to four years with six months suspended for good
behaviour by Kwekwe provincial magistrate Oliver Mudzongachiso in
July 2005.
After serving the jail term at Hwahwa Maximum Prison, Samukeliso has
once again resurfaced in the sporting circles in Chiredzi where he is
into women boxing and football.
The fraudster is now alternating between Chiredzi and Bulawayo where
he is playing soccer for yet another women's team.
Medical experts who spoke to Standardsport on the condition of
anonymity said that there is need for Samukeliso to go through a
proper psychiatric examination for them to ascertain his mental
status.
“But obviously after two medical reports from Kwekwe General Hospital
and another one from the police, it was enough evidence to show that
he was not a woman.
“Apart from the medical reports, Sithole actually admitted in court
that he was doing it for monetary gains, but after serving four years
a normal person would not repeat a similar mistake,” said a
psy-chiatrist from a leading mental health institution in Harare.
“It will be very nice for the police to arrest him and bring him here
so that we can examine him maybe he has a mental problem.
“We have never come across such a situation in Zimbabwe; these issues
usually happen in western countries where those who do it are called
cross dressers.”
The psychiatrist said Samukeliso can also be suffering from an identity crisis.
“This clearly means that he has a problem somehow, because after
serving four years, he was not supposed to do it again. This person
surely needs an examination,” said the psychiatrist.
Samukeliso has actually joined a short queue of cross dressers, some
of whom did it for fun but others did it for monetary gains, only to
be unmasked after some time.
Cross dressers are categorised in two groups, which include real cross
dressers — those who do it for fun — and fakers who do it for monetary
gains.
Here is a list of cross dressers who did it for monetary gains.
JT LeRoy
Date: Exposed in October 2005
Categories: False Identity, Imposters, Gender Fakers
In 1994 a teenage boy called JT (or Jeremy “Terminator”) LeRoy began
to attract attention in the literary community. He was a sympathetic
character — a transgendered, homosexual, drug-addicted, pathologically
shy teenager who had been living on the streets, forced into a life of
truck-stop prostitution by his mother. Writing seemed to offer a means
for him to escape that life, and other writers strongly supported his
efforts.
Around 2001 he began to make more public appearances, though he
insisted on wearing a wig, hat, and dark sunglasses to conceal his
identity. By 2005, when he was in his mid-twenties, his stature as a
literary star appeared to be secure. But this stature was shaken when,
in October 2005, author Stephen Beachy published an article in New
York Magazine that asked a simple question: Was JT LeRoy a real
person?
Billy Tipton
Date: Revealed in January 1989
Categories: Music, Gender Fakers, 1980s
Billy Tipton (1914-1989) got his start in the predominantly masculine
world of jazz during the 1930s. He made a name for himself playing the
saxophone and piano, and during the 1950s formed his own group, the
Billy Tipton Trio. Throughout his life he had a number of wives and
adopted three sons. Therefore, when he died at the age of 74 on
January 21, 1989, it came as a surprise to almost everyone to discover
that Billy Tipton was really a woman. Even his wives claimed not to
have known his secret during their marriages to him.
It is not clear why Tipton chose to conceal his gender. Some speculate
that it was the only way for Tipton to make it in the world of jazz
during the 1930s, although by the 1950s a number of women had
established careers in that field. Others theorise that Tipton was
simply more comfortable living as a man.
Apparently he chose not to seek medical treatment for the bleeding
ulcer that killed him because that would have required disclosing his
gender to the hospital staff.
Robert Archer, aka Tanis Chandler
Date: Exposed in January 1944
Categories: Movies, Gender Fakers, 1940s
Tanis Chandler was a 20-year-old woman working as a teletypist in a
Hollywood brokerage office, but dreaming of becoming a movie star.
However, she was having trouble getting any roles, so she decided to
try another strategy. There was a shortage of male actors in 1943
because of the war, so Tanis figured she might have better luck if she
were a man. She put on a pair of pants and presented herself at a
casting office as “Robert Archer.” The casting office, believing she
was a man, gave her a part as a sheik in a Warner Brothers movie, The
Desert Song. Luckily for her, the part required her to wear long
flowing robes that covered her curves.
She did so well that Robert Archer was cast in a second movie, My
Reputation directed by Curtis Bernhardt. But in one scene she was
required to mow a lawn. Since it was a sunny day, the director told
“Robert” that he should remove his shirt. Robert balked at doing this.
“Okay, okay, I’m a girl,” she admitted.
Pope Joan (853-855 AD)
According to legend, Pope Joan was a woman who concealed her gender
and ruled as pope for two years, from 853-855 AD. Her identity was
exposed when, riding one day from St. Peter’s to the Lateran, she
stopped by the side of the road and, to the astonishment of everyone,
gave birth to a child.
BY BRIAN NKIWANE
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/sports/25301-samukelisos-case-special-medical-experts.html