‘Govt strategy must be more inclusive to help abused children’

Civil society organisation Women and Men Against Child Abuse says as child protection week kicks off, government’s strategy must become more inclusive to help abused children.

South Africa has high rates of abuse of women and children compared to many other countries.

The organisation’s spokesperson Ngaa Murombedzi has said that it is baffling that a pregnant ten-year-old would be classified under teen pregnancy.

Ngaa Murombedzi shares more in interview below:

“That is not teen pregnancy, that is the rape of children. We are faced with a conundrum, where we’ve got children being raped and it’s being concealed. Then we’ve got children identified as learners engaging in sexual activity that is risky.”

“The other group that we are neglecting are children between 10-years-old and 16-years-old, who find themselves pregnant, in impoverished communities, without access to any resources, not even schooling systems,” adds Murombedzi.

Calls for death penalty:

Earlier last week, Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) President Chief Lameck Mokoena called for a referendum on the death penalty.

Mokoena says the killing of women and children in the country is cause for concern.

His comment follows the arrest of three people who appeared in the Kabokweni Magistrate’s Court in Mpumalanga on Monday.

They are charged with the kidnapping, rape and murder of six-year-old Bontle Mashiyane whose mutilated body was found dumped near her home last Saturday.

Mokoena says many of the perpetrators are former convicts who are out on parole.

Six-year-old Bontle Mashiyana’s mutilated body found in Mganduzine, Mpumalanga: