SA needs legislative reform that should focus on ensuring that children get better parental care while also tightening the grip on offenders.
This is the view of director for the Teddy Bear Foundation Dr Shaheda Omar as the country launched Child Protection Week yesterday.
A few days ago, a toddler’s mutilated body was discovered inside a plastic bag along the N1 highway in Limpopo. The identity of the child is still unknown.
On Thursday, three siblings died while another is still fighting for his life in hospital after drinking a poison-laced energy drink in Heidelberg.
Over a week ago, the discovery of Bontle Zethu Ditebogo Mashiyane’s mutilated body sent shock waves across the country. The six-year-old had been missing since April 30 when her body was discovered near her home in Mganduzweni near Hazyview, Mpumalanga, last Saturday.
These cases are among many examples of violent attacks on children in the country.
Omar said the criminal justice system should stop allowing sexual offenders back into the community by giving them shorter sentences and parole.
One of the accused in Bontle’s murder case is serial offender Collen Hlongwane, who was twice released on parole – for an attempted murder committed in 2008 and a 2013 murder.
“We are seeing children being killed and abused. This campaign should be a reminder that child protection is everybody’s business and it should happen throughout the year,” said Omar.
She called for more focus on rural communities across the country, saying that children in such communities were especially vulnerable to neglect and violence.
Unicef SA representative Christine Muhinga said the Covid-19 pandemic had made children more vulnerable to violence. She said children’s rights to education, healthcare and food had been severely affected.
“Even before the pandemic, children have too often been exposed to forms of violence, exploitation, abuse at home, in schools and online,” she said.
Muhinga called for stricter laws and policies to help protect children.
Limpopo provincial police spokesperson Brig Motlafela Mojapelo said it was concerning that no family had come forward to report a missing child fitting the description in recent days. He said they were waiting a post-mortem report to help them solve the murder case.
By February, the SAPS had reported that 352 children were murdered within 90 days, 394 others survived attempted murder and 2,048 suffered physical assault.
Social development said teenage pregnancy would be a major focus for this year’s campaign during Child Protection Week after a report from the health department revealed that children between 10 and 14 years were falling pregnant.
Social development deputy minister Henrietta Bogopane-Zulu, who spoke at the launch of the national campaign in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape, yesterday, urged people to name and shame rapists.
Bogopane-Zulu said statutory rape was a huge contributing factor behind teenage pregnancy.
“I don’t even like using the word blesser because only God can bless us. They are outright rapists and we must stop looking for nice words to describe them. We must start naming and shaming them,” she said.
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