and terror
Rehana Rossouw
EVERY morning, the mother of a seven-year- old girl watched her daughter leave their Khayelitsha shack to walk to school. Most mornings, the child left home with an empty stomach.
For the past few months the child hadn’t reached school. Instead, she had been going to a house nearby where she was sexually exploited. In return, she was given a plate of food.
The child was first enticed into the house by a female resident who spoke convincingly about school being a waste of time. Eventually the child did not need convincing.
After lunch each day, the woman took her to the bedroom and sexually stimulated her in preparation for her male partner to rape her. The child did not scream anymore.
At the school the child was supposed to attend, the children weren’t much safer from abuse. Four nine-year-old boys recently took a seven-year-old girl to a secluded area in the grounds and attempted to rape her.
While she kicked and screamed, they removed her underwear and their own. One boy attempted to penetrate her anus and another her vagina.
Fortunately, a teacher heard the screams and intervened to stop the gang rape. When the children were asked why they tried to rape the girl, they said everyone else was doing it.
This child and others in “desperate” need of help will tell their stories at a special truth commission in Parliament on November 2.
The children will testify to a panel of invited guests including Minister of Justice Dullah Omar, Minister of Welfare Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi, the attorney general of the Cape, the chief magistrate of Cape Town and the head of the Child Protection Unit, Anneke Pienaar. President Nelson Mandela has been invited to open the event.
They will hear how the government has promised to help abused children, but has done nothing.
Among the other stories collected for the children’s “truth commission” is one of an eight-year-old boy who was sent by a social worker for counselling. His mother has physically abused him on several occasions. The most recent incident happened 18 months ago when he asked for food and she slashed him with a panga.
In August the boy had an operation on the arm fracture caused by the panga attack. His mother had never taken him for medical treatment.
Their only source of income is a government maintenance grant. His mother had been sexually abused by her father and friends. She regards her son as a male who may do the same to her one day. Unless she receives counselling, her son’s prospects are dim.
“All these children need help urgently, desperately. Where do we get help? There is nothing available and the welfare budget has been cut again,” said Bernadette van Vuuren, project co-ordinator of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Resources Aimed at the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (Rapcan).
`We are no longer able to look to the government for intervention on behalf of the children. We resent being put in a position where we have to face children in such circumstances while we have been disempowered to help them.
“We educate adults about child abuse, about protecting children. We create an awareness of the law. And then we have to say to them that all the services they are entitled to, that are guaranteed by the Constitution, don’t exist!”
Van Vuuren said NGOs dealing with children had met with government officials at a number of forums where many promises, public statements and commitments to children had been made. She believed these were just “empty promises”.
“And so on November 2, International Children’s Day, the children will have an opportunity to speak. Let’s see if the ministers we invite have the courage to listen,” said Van Vuuren.
Rapcan, in conjunction with several other NGOs working in the field of children’s rights, organised the “Children’s Truth Commission”.
By this week, only Omar and Pienaar had confirmed that they will attend. They will be joined by the head of United Nations Children’s Fund in South Africa, Ian Mcloud, and a representative of the Save the Children Fund.
The testimonies of the victims of sexual abuse will be delivered by social workers assisting them to recover from their ordeals.
“We want to give the children an opportunity to testify directly to Parliament about the everyday crisis thousands of children experience in our country,” said Van Vuuren.
“It will be an opportunity for children to ask questions and get some answers from the ministers and bring the attention and voices of perhaps the most important members of civil society to Parliament.”
The NGOs will document the event and present a report to Mandela and the United Nations. It will highlight clauses in the Constitution which impact negatively on children and sections of the UN’s convention on the rights of children which are being violated in South Africa.
“South Africa is a country envied by the world for its Constitution based on human rights, it is a country which has ratified the UN convention. On paper, the picture is wonderful,” said Van Vuuren.
“However, on the ground, it is a very different and tragic situation. Studied closely, we are a country that is violating the rights of our children. At the moment, there is little or no child protection of any form.”